Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh attended the BHT awards ceremony on Jan. 20. (Photo by Maryland GovPics; courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

The LGBT charitable group Brother Help Thyself on Jan. 20 presented grants totaling $75,000 to 34 non-profit organizations serving the LGBT and HIV/AIDS communities in the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore region.

BHT presented the grant awards in a ceremony held at the Baltimore Eagle, a gay bar in Baltimore, in which Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and Maryland Department of Health official Jeffrey Hitt attended.

“The story isn’t that BHT gave out $75,000 today,” said BHT’s grant reception chairman. “The story here is that in the era we find ourselves in today, where our freedoms and rights, and healthcare choices are being threatened, these 34 non-profits, without our help, are out there each day and every day fighting to preserve and defend those rights and freedoms in support of our community,” he said.

“We are proud to play a small role in that work,” he added.

In addition to awarding the grants, BHT issued four annual community service awards: The Anthony J. Bachrach Award for Outstanding Service to an individual to Baltimore activist Rik Newton-Treadway; the Billy Collison Award “to an underdog and grantee” to the D.C. Latino GLBT History Project; the George Dodson Business Award to a business supportive of the LGBT community to the Baltimore Eagle; and the Founders Award to a non-profit to the D.C. Wanda Alston Foundation.

BHT released the following list of the 34 organizations that received grants at the Jan. 20 ceremony:

AIDS Action Baltimore, $4,140

Athletes United for Social Justice of D.C. ‘The Grassroots Project,’ $1,130

Black, Gifted & Whole, Inc. of D.C., $5,830

Breaking Ground of D.C., $2,930

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop of D.C., $830

Casa Ruby, Inc. of D.C., $4,390

D.C.’s Different Drummers, $1,130

D.C. Center for the LGBT Community, $2,360

Dickey Memorial Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, $150

Heart to Hand, Inc. of Prince George’s County, $3,410

Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., $560

FreeState Justice of Maryland, $920

Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore, $770

Health Options & Positive Energy Foundation (HOPE DC), $3,790

HIPS D.C., $3,580

HopeSpring, Inc. of Baltimore, $3,350

D.C. Latino GLBT History Project, $2,200

LULAC Council 11125 of D.C., $1,000

Mary’s House or Older Adults, Inc. of D.C., $8,280

Metro D.C. PFLAG, $850

Mid-Atlantic Deaf & Interpreter Fund of Baltimore, $1,670

Mosiac Theater Company of D.C., $350

New Ways Ministry, Inc. of D.C., $1,980

PFLAG Columbia-Howard County, Md., $1,020

PFLAG Westminster, Md., $1,020

Rainbow History Project Foundation of D.C., $790

Rainbow Theater Project of D.C., $540

SMYAL of D.C., $1,690

St. Margaret’s Church Vestry – ‘Charlie’s Place’ of D.C., $3,030

Transgender Education Association of Greater Washington, $1,460

UUC of Rockville Rainbow Youth Alliance, $4,740

Wanda Alston Foundation of D.C., $2,470

Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club, $560