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AIDS Action Baltimore to honor John Waters at 35th anniversary commemoration

Honorees to include John Waters and Pat Moran

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John Waters (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

AIDS Action Baltimore will mark 35 years of service next month by paying tribute to six people who have helped keep it in operation, including filmmaker John Waters and his friend and movie industry colleague Pat Moran.

AIDS Action Baltimoreā€™s 35th Anniversary Commemoration, planned for Sept.18, is a cocktail reception and brunch thatā€™s also a fundraiser for the non-profit organization, which was started in 1987 to fight HIV/AIDS and provide a safety net for people living with HIV/AIDS and experiencing a financial emergency.

ā€œJohn has supported us from the beginning,ā€ said Lynda Dee, co-founder and executive director of the organization. ā€œAll of his movie premieres benefitted AIDS Action Baltimore. Without his help, we wouldnā€™t be here today.ā€

Waters has directed 16 movies and written 10 books, and he was named in June to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Based in Baltimore, he has two museum exhibits coming up, ā€œComing Attractions: The John Waters Collection,ā€ an exhibit of art from his personal collection that heā€™s donating to the Baltimore Museum of Art, at the museum from Nov. 20, 2022, to April 16, 2023, and ā€œPope of Trash,ā€ a career retrospective at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles next summer.

Moran is a three-time Emmy Award-winning casting director who has worked closely with Waters and others on films and television shows made in Baltimore. She is one of three co-founders of AIDS Action Baltimore, along with Dee and Garey Lambert, who passed away in 1987.

Waters said heā€™s pleased to support AIDS Action Baltimore. 

ā€œIā€™m really happy to be involved,ā€ he said. ā€œPat was one of the first people that started it. Iā€™ve been a supporter always just because I believe Iā€™m lucky I didnā€™t die of it.Ā Plain and simple. I give money as a superstition that I wonā€™t ever get it. And Lynda Dee is a tireless AIDS warrior. The gay community owes her great, great credit … Itā€™s an organization in Baltimore that has kept many, many people alive … Iā€™m just honored to help them in any way I can.ā€

Other honorees include:

Richard Chaisson, professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and principal investigator of the Hopkins Center for AIDS Research;

Carla Alexander, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Care, and an internationally recognized expert for those living with HIV disease;

Debbie Rock, a disco singer-turned-HIV activist who is the founding CEO of LIGHT Health and Wellness, a non-profit that provides a range of services for children, families and individuals in Baltimore affected by poverty, addiction, mental illness, HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses, including day care and respite care for children with HIV/AIDS; and

Carlton Smith, a community health worker with the state of Maryland, founder of the Center for Black Equity, and chair of the Ryan White Planning Council, which provides medical care and support services for people with HIV in Baltimore.Ā 

Since 1987, AIDS Action Baltimore has helped more than 8,750 people, distributing $3.145 million in assistance for items such as rent and utilities. It also has a number of programs to fight HIV, from town hall meetings to testing assistance to prevention campaigns, including outreach efforts to at-risk populations.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 31,676 people aged 13 and older were living in Maryland with diagnosed HIV at the end of 2020, and an estimated 3,559 people in Maryland were living with undiagnosed HIV at the end of 2019.

Dee wrote in June that the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more difficult for AIDS Action Baltimore to provide the services it does.

ā€œCOVID-19 is eating a large percentage of U. S. Health and Human Services funding,ā€ she wrote she in an open letter to friends of the organization. ā€œWe are in danger of losing all our hard-won treatment and prevention gains. Because of COVID-19, it is much harder to obtain the money we need to fight HIV.ā€ 

Thatā€™s why AIDS Action Baltimore holds events such as the one next month, she added: ā€œWe are still doing our best to help ourselves.ā€ 

AIDS Action Baltimoreā€™s 35thĀ Anniversary Commemoration will be held at the Belvedere (1 E. Chase St.) in Baltimore, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 18. Tickets cost $175 per person or $1,750 for a table of 10. Theyā€™re available atĀ aidsactionbaltimore.orgĀ or by calling 410-437-AIDS.Ā 

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Maryland

Maryland’s Joe Vogel would make history if elected to Congress

27-year-old gay lawmaker running for David Trone seat

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Maryland state Del. Joe Vogel (D-Montgomery County) (Photo courtesy of Joe Vogel)

Maryland state Del. Joe Vogel (D-Montgomery County) on Monday said it is time for a new generation of leaders in Congress.

The Montgomery County Democrat last May declared his candidacy for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District after Congressman David Trone announced his run for retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.)’s seat. Vogel, 27, would be the first Latino, the first gay man and the first Gen Zer elected to Congress from Maryland if he were to win in November.

“We need a new generation of leadership with new perspectives, new ideas and the courage to actually deliver for our communities if we want things to get better in this country,” Vogel told the Washington Blade during an interview at the Line Hotel in Adams Morgan.

Protecting democracy among priorities

Vogel was born in Uruguay and immigrated to Rockville with his family when he was three years old.

He volunteered for former President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Vogel, who is Jewish, in 2014 worked for Maryland state Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery County)’s campaign.

He was part of Hillary Clinton’s National Advance Team during her 2016 presidential campaign, and worked on former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s 2017 gubernatorial bid. Vogel later joined the March for Our Lives movement for gun control that began after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2018.

Vogel in 2020 worked for U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)’s presidential campaign. The Montgomery County Democrat in 2022 became the first Gen Zer to win a seat in the Maryland General Assembly. 

Vogel pointed out to the Blade that he has introduced 18 bills in this year’s legislative session. 

One of them, a bill that would prohibit the state from giving foster children in their custody trash bags for them to transport their belongings, passed unanimously in the House on March 14. Other measures that Vogel has sponsored would, among other things, provide security grants to abortion clinics and increase investments in local newspapers.

“I have a record of being able to deliver results,” he said. “That’s what I’m running on.”

Vogel pointed out to the Blade that his platform includes:

  • ā€¢ Protecting democracy
  • ā€¢ Preventing “attacks on fundamental rights”
  • ā€¢ Fighting climate change
  • ā€¢ Stopping gun violence

Vogel also noted his support for the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal civil rights laws.

“At a moment of time when you have attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, against our rights, against our identities, I believe that there’s nothing more powerful than electing Maryland’s first openly LGBTQ+ member of Congress,” he said.

Vogel added his election would send “a message to all the young LGBTQ+ people across the state that they belong, and that they have someone in the United States Congress who understands them and is going to fight for them every single day,” added Vogel.

Vogel’s great-grandparents fled Europe ahead of the Holocaust. Uruguay’s military dictatorship was in place from 1973-1985. 

His multiple identities remain a cornerstone of his legislative priorities and of his campaign.

“When we talk about the attacks on LGBTQ+ people, I get that. I feel that,” said Vogel. “I understand that when we talk about the attacks on immigrant communities … not only do I understand that, personally, but I’m around so many immigrants that feel that pain of what we’ve seen over the last many years of the incessant attacks on immigrants and Latino people. When we see the rise in anti-Semitism, I feel that personally.”

HRC, Victory Fund have endorsed Vogel

The Democratic primary will take place on May 14.

April McClain Delaney, a former U.S. Department of Commerce official whose husband is former Congressman John Delaney, and state Del. Lesley Lopez (D-Montgomery County) are among Vogel’s primary opponents. Former state Del. Dan Cox, an anti-LGBTQ Republican who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2022, is also running for Trone’s seat.

Campaign finance reports indicate Vogel raised $379,755.91 between May 4, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2023. McClain Delaney reported she received $536,557 in campaign contributions from Oct. 1, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2023.

The Human Rights Campaign, the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, Equality PAC and the Sierra Club are among the organizations that have endorsed Vogel’s campaign. U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and Frederick County Council President Brad Young are among those who have also backed him. The Maryland State Education Association and the National Education Association this week endorsed Vogel.

Vogel dismissed suggestions that he does not have enough legislative experience to run for Congress and that he is too young.

“When you’re elected to Congress, you’re elected for a two-year term,” he said. “Look at what I’ve been able to accomplish in a two-year term. I’ve proven that I can hit the ground running, get results, deliver results.”

Vogel added the race to succeed Trone in Congress is “me versus the status quo.”

“We need a new generation of leadership with new perspectives, new ideas and the courage to actually deliver for our communities if we actually want things to get better in this country,” said Vogel.

Democratic opponent gave money to Jim DeMint

Former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan last month announced he is running for U.S. Senate. Prince George’s County Executive Director Angela Alsobrooks is also hoping to succeed Cardin.

Vogel sharply criticized Cox. 

“He is as bigoted as it gets,” Vogel told the Blade. “He is a far-right extremist who bussed people to D.C. on Jan. 6, who is as homophobic as it gets, and who is as transphobic as it gets.”

Vogel said Maryland voters in November “need to reject Dan Cox” and “we have to reject Larry Hogan.” (Vogel has endorsed Trone’s Senate campaign.)

“We have to elect pro-equality members of Congress this November, to finally secure the protections that we need for our community in Congress,” said Vogel.

Vogel also vowed to “do everything in my power to ensure that” former President Donald Trump does not win re-election in November.

“Three generations in my family: My great-grandparents, my grandparents, my parents experienced the loss of democracy,” Vogel told the Blade. “My great-grandparents escaped fascism. My grandparents and parents lived under a repressive military dictatorship in Uruguay, and I see the concern that my parents feel seeing the rise of Trump.”

“I refuse to be the fourth generation in my family who experienced the loss of democracy,” he added. “This November, the election fundamentally is going to decide the future of our democracy.”

Vogel on Sunday during a forum the Frederick County Democratic Party sponsored criticized McClain Delaney over her 2005 campaign donation to then-U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) after he said gay people should not be teachers.

“I can’t imagine making any sort of political contribution to any anti-LGBTQ+, anti-choice, pro-NRA member of the United States Senate, and let alone the maximum allowed contribution,” said Vogel. “There is a stark contrast there.”

‘My heart breaks for what we saw on’ Oct. 7

Vogel spoke with the Blade less than six months after Hamas launched a surprise attack against southern Israel.

“It was the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” he said. “What concerns me is that Hamas has made clear that they intend to carry out an attack like that again and again and again and again.”

“My heart breaks for what we saw on that day,” added Vogel.

Vogel is among those who attendedĀ a pro-Israel rallyĀ that took place on the National Mall last November. He has also met with relatives of hostages who remain in the Gaza Strip.

“Hearing the stories of parents whose kids are still in Gaza, the pain that I feel is tremendous,” said Vogel. “We have to bring those hostages home.”

Vogel told the Blade that Hamas can no longer control Gaza. He also said peace cannot be achieved with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in office.

“If we want to reach peace, a number of things have to happen: Hamas needs to go. We need a change in leadership in Israel and we need diplomatic negotiations to get a bilateral ceasefire, which is not what I think people are calling for when they call for an immediate ceasefire.”

Vogel last October posted to his X account pictures of anti-Semitic graffiti in his apartment building.

He told the Blade the graffiti was removed, but “it took a very long time.” Vogel has introduced a bill that would require the removal of graffiti in a specific period of time if it violates Maryland’s hate crimes law.

Book bans ‘have absolutely no place’

Vogel during the interview also criticized Moms for Liberty and their efforts to ban books in Maryland. He noted Jaime Brennan, the chair of the group’s Frederick County chapter, is running for the county’s Board of Education.

“Book bans in a free democratic society have absolutely no place,” said Vogel.

The Maryland House on March 15 by a 98-37 vote margin approved the Freedom to Read Act. The measure would create a “state policy that local school systems operate their school library media programs consistent with certain standards,” require “each local school system to develop a policy and procedures to review objections to materials in a school library media program” and ban “a county board of education from dismissing, demoting, suspending, disciplining, reassigning, transferring or otherwise retaliating against certain school library media program personnel for performing their job duties consistent with certain standards.”

The bill is now before the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee.

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How a culture war canceled a 25-year-old LGBTQ workshop for independent schools

St. Paul’s Schools in Baltimore County ran course

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St. Paulā€™s Schools in Baltimore County on March 22, 2024. (Baltimore Banner photo)

BY LILLIAN REED | Angry emails, phone calls and social media comments were pouring into the Association of Independent Maryland & D.C. Schools in January.

Never before had the associationā€™s popular annual ā€œBelonging in Gender and Sexual Identityā€ workshop for private school educators and students generated such negative attention. That was until this yearā€™s event unexpectedly attracted the gaze of national conservative media outlets and their audiences.

The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

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Moms for Liberty: A tale of two counties

In book ban fight, Marylandā€™s progressive Howard a stark contrast to neighboring Carroll

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Gabriella Monroe holds a poster that says 'Ban Bigotry Not Books' outside Howard Countyā€™s Central Branch library in Columbia on Feb. 26, 2024 (Photo by Sam Mallon for the Baltimore Banner)

COLUMBIA, Md. ā€” ā€œI know there are children here,ā€ said Jessica Garland, a little tremble to her voice. ā€œThis is my warning. Thereā€™s stuff thatā€™s going to be said from these books. So if you want to remove your child, please do so now.ā€ And with a deep breath, she continued. ā€œHe pushes against me, shoving the tip inside with a pop.ā€ She paused for effect. The audience let out a few giggles and gasps of faux horror. Not a single parent removed their child from the room. 

Garland was here in Howard County visiting from Carroll County, where as the chapter vice chair of Moms for Liberty, she had succeeded in pushing for the school board to ban ā€œsexually explicit contentā€ from school libraries. But her presentation here was attended by more mocker moms than soccer moms, fully clad in rainbow capes and Hawaiian necklaces, who had come to protest the event.

It is unlikely that the Howard chapter of Moms for Liberty will succeed in getting any books removed from schools, where none of the school board has signed the Moms for Liberty pledge to ā€œsecure parental rights at all levels of government.ā€ The political makeup of Carroll and Howard counties is nothing alike: 60% of voters in Carroll voted for Trump in 2020, where only 26% in Howard did. Carroll County is an odd island of red in a sea of blue among the metropolitan counties of Maryland, with proximity to either Baltimore or D.C. It has a long history of right-wing proclivities, as a hotbed of KKK activity in the 20th century, and with only 59 of its 4,500 residents voting for Abraham Lincoln back in 1860.

Howard County, in contrast, seems like a queer paradise. The school system boasts a huge selection of LGBTQ programming, none of which can be found in Carroll schools: a biannual rainbow conference, LGBTQ book clubs for all age levels, Q&As for parents with queer kids, a queer literary magazine, and a Pride prom. But just because Moms for Liberty wonā€™t succeed in replacing the school board doesnā€™t mean that they havenā€™t had any impact in Howard County.

At the Jan. 6 meeting of the school board, parents complained that their kids felt unsafe because of the recent political activity. And the school system has been pestered with numerous requests through the MPIA (Maryland Public Information Act) to report on the extent and funding of its LGBTQ programming. While the Howard County School System does employ a LGBTQIA+ Initiatives Specialist, Danielle DuPuis, they have not funded the many initiatives DuPuis has orchestrated since her hiring in 2022. DuPuis pays for the programming with fundraising through T-shirt sales, and with grants from organizations like Community Allies of Rainbow Youth. This lack of funding is a consequence of the school systemā€™s tight budget, not of Moms for Liberty ā€” but it is hard to imagine the school system diverting any of its limited funding to its LGBTQ programming with Moms for Liberty breathing down their neck.

This programming is important precisely because Howard County schools are not a queer paradise. On March 9, I attended one of Howardā€™s newer offerings: a Q&A for parents of queer students. The stories they told were shocking. Two parents described a Rainbow Fun Run that was held at Clarksville Middle School to raise money for queer youth. Students were encouraged to wear rainbow colored clothes for the event ā€” but a dozen of the middle schoolers showed up in black from head to toe, wearing pins that said ā€œThere Are Only Two Genders.ā€ It was refreshing to see the group react with humor. ā€œBlack is one of the colors of the rainbow,ā€ one said. ā€œYouā€™re still participating anyway!ā€

Jessica insisted at the Moms for Liberty meeting that they were not trying to target LGBTQ books. ā€œWe did not target homosexuals, transsexuals [sic],ā€ she said. It was clear the protesters in the audience did not believe her from the signs they carried: ā€œProtect Trans Youth,ā€ ā€œHate and Ignorance are Not Family Values,ā€ ā€œBan Bigots Not Books.ā€ They have good reason to distrust the intentions of Moms for Liberty. The Capital News Service conducted an analysis of the books Moms for Liberty targeted for removal in Carroll County, and concluded that a disproportionate number of those books were written by queer authors on queer subject matters.

But even if the quest to ban sexually explicit material from school libraries is in bad faith, the Moms for Liberty are right about one thing: The books they are targeting are sexually explicit. No protester at the event argued that the books werenā€™t sexually explicit, and yet no one defended the presence of sexually explicit books in schools, either. Perhaps this is not so surprising. Who wants to be seen arguing that schools should carry pornographic books? Itā€™s far easier to defend LGBTQ books, and giggle at the spectacle of dirty words on a PowerPoint.

Unfortunately, the research on adolescents and pornography has a long way to go. In aĀ highly cited meta-analysis of more than 100 articles on the subject published between 1995 and 2015, Jochen Peter and Patti M. Valkenburg were able to conclude very little. The literature points to an association between adolescent pornography use and both casual sex and sexual violence (both as victim and perpetrator). But the articles suffer from numerous biases. For one, they do not discriminate the content of the pornography: videos depicting consensual and non-consensual sex are lumped in together. There is a huge heteronormativity bias: queer forms of pornography have not been extensively studied. There is a negativity bias: the articles are actively looking for negative effects, not positive ones. (And all of this research has been done on internet pornography, not sexually explicit books in school libraries.)

At the end of the Moms for Liberty meeting, Nina Yukich, a fifth grade student, stayed behind to speak with Jessica. And though the library staff had already stacked up chairs for the night, I stole a seat to watch the exchange. Ninaā€™s guardian, Dinah Yukich, had had a hostile encounter with Jessica during the Q&A portion of the event. Jessica called on Dinah as the ā€œgentleman back there,ā€ and Dinah accused her of ā€œwillfully and intentionallyā€ misgendering her. 

Jessica leaned down as she spoke with Nina, who stood clutching her copy of ā€œGender Queer,ā€ one of the most common targets for book bans in schools. ā€œWho do you want to talk to about this stuff?ā€ Jessica asked. ā€œDo you feel comfortable talking to teachers? And if this is your trusted adult ā€” if you donā€™t have a trusted adult, or a friend, or a mom, or can write a letter to somebody ā€” if you donā€™t have anybody to talk to [ā€¦] you shouldnā€™t be alone reading that book.ā€ I couldnā€™t believe my ears. Here was Jessica, not so subtly impugning Dinah as an untrustworthy adult. I was fully prepared for another hostile exchange.

But Dinah just stood by, observing. At no point did she interrupt Jessica, or start arguing on Ninaā€™s behalf. It occurred to me that Dinah was letting Nina have an independent experience of the event. Dinah and Nina could obviously confer afterwards ā€” it wasnā€™t as though Dinah was abdicating her role as guardian. But in letting Nina experience the night on her own, Dinah was giving the two of them something to genuinely confer about.

Dinahā€™s approach seems to me a model of the kind of parenting at stake in this debate over books. Do we let kids engage with sexually explicit material on their own, trusting them to confer with adults afterwards? Or do we need to be there all the while, ripping out any pages we donā€™t want them to see?

CJ HigginsĀ is a postdoctoral fellow with the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

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