BY JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV AND ADAM WILLIS | A city agency managing tens of millions in pandemic relief money has recommended terminating a $500,000 grant to the state’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to providing resources to the LGBTQ community, Pride Center of Maryland.

The grant, which would affect programming to address violence within the LGBTQ community, helps the center provide resources to hundreds of people, according to its executive director, Cleo Manago.

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

By JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV | The Manor, an upscale gay-owned bar and restaurant in Mount Vernon, has been acquired and will reopen under new management in the coming weeks. It is unclear who the new managers of the business are, however, and whether or not it will remain gay-owned and operated.

The restaurant and nightclub has been “temporarily closed” since shortly before Christmas due to damage from broken pipes.

The rest of this article can be found at the Baltimore Banner website.

By John-John Williams IV | Londyn Smith de Richelieu, the director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs in Baltimore, has filed a complaint alleging that she was discriminated against this past May by the Center for Transgender and Gender Expansive Health at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Smith de Richelieu, who is the first person to occupy that role in the Mayor’s office, said in a complaint to the city’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights and in an interview with The Banner that the center, led by Dr. Fan Liang, denied her facial feminization surgery, claiming that Smith de Richelieu was being aggressive and used profanity with Liang’s staff. Smith de Richelieu, who is a Black transgender woman, saidshe was triggered by what she called false, stereotypic characterizations.

The rest of this article can be found at the Baltimore Banner website.