Maryland
Mayor of Salisbury, Md. cancels Pride flag display
Decision ends five years of support for LGBTQ community
The City of Salisbury, Md., will not fly the Pride flag outside the city office building in downtown Salisbury. This will mark the first time in five years that a Pride flag will not fly at the city’s office for Pride month.
Randolph J. Taylor, the mayor of Salisbury, told the Blade that the choice not to raise the flag was based on being “fair” and “transparent.”
“The administration’s position on the PFLAG kick-off is very simple,” Taylor said to the Blade in an email. “That is, to be neutral. Neutrality is not to be interpreted as anything else but simply that — being neutral.“
Taylor explained that the decision to appear more neutral was not to single out one particular group. “This is an approach the City has and will take with any other event held in the City of Salisbury as we entertain more than 100 events a year from a variety of groups and causes.”
Taylor concluded his statement with good wishes for PFLAG, the LGBTQ human rights organization that previously collaborated with the mayor on the flag raising and recently relocated within Salisbury.
“I am glad PFLAG has a new location on Carroll St. for its kick-off,” Taylor said. “The City of Salisbury wishes the event good luck!”
Nicole Hollywood, legislative chair for PFLAG Salisbury, said the decision not to promote cultural events using “city assets,” which includes the city’s flagpoles and street lamps, could impact longstanding celebrations of cultural heritage in the city.
“We simply got an email saying that ‘we’re evaluating the use of city assets for cultural events,’ and ‘we don’t feel it’s appropriate moving forward to hang flags that represent special interest groups,’” Hollywood told the Blade regarding the denied request for flying the flag. “We were disheartened and made a statement saying that the planned event, which has occurred for a number of years always on the same day in the same location, is temporarily postponed until we could find an alternative.”
Hollywood continued, explaining that she, and other supporters of the LGBTQ community, have plans to bring the issue to the city council’s attention. She hopes to get a more standardized approach to the vetting of cultural events, like the Pride flag raising, in Salisbury.
“We do have a request that we’ll be making in front of the city council, which is simply that a structure be put in place that’s uniform and equitable, that’s used to vet applications for flag raisings and other civic and cultural events,” she explained. “It isn’t clear, at this time, who exactly holds authority over city assets.”
In addition to her concerns regarding the current “murky” methods of approval for cultural events, Hollywood also highlighted her fears for the future of the Pride crosswalk in Salisbury.
The crosswalk, which includes the classic rainbow Pride flag, the updated progressive Pride flag (that comprises the colors of the classic Pride flag, transgender pride flag, and stripes of black and brown to recognize people of color in the LGBTQ community), as well as a transgender flag, was the first to be installed in Maryland.
Hollywood fears that if the city re-evaluates the crosswalks, it could be the beginning of the end of outward support for the LGBTQ community on any public land.
“We think that it’s been a beacon of hope to people in the community having this rainbow, the trans, and progress Pride crosswalks,” Hollywood said. “We really want to protect and steward their existence because we know that if they’re painted over, or erased, that it won’t be as easy to get them back.”
Despite the shift in attitude from the city, some in the community have pledged to show their support in full force. The downtown business alliance in Salisbury, which works to foster growth for business in Salisbury, has encouraged its members to fly rainbow flags on private property in solidarity with PFLAG.
“We’re trying to get as many people as possible to feel that they have a voice,” Hollywood said. “To feel that they’re included and to find other ways that we could celebrate queer joy.”
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday signed a bill that decriminalizes HIV in the state.
State Dels. Kris Fair (D-Frederick County) and Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City) are among the lawmakers who sponsored House Bill 39 or the Carlton R. Smith Act, which is named after the long-time activist known as the “mayor” of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood who died in May 2024.
Smith was a member of the Coalition to Decriminalize HIV in Maryland that advocated for the bill. FreeState Justice, a statewide LGBTQ rights group, was also part of the coalition.
“At FreeState Justice, we are proud to stand with advocates, health experts, and lawmakers who worked diligently to advance this bill. The bipartisan support for the Carlton R. Smith Act is a testament to the power of education, research, and courageous leadership,” said FreeState Justice Executive Director Phillip Westry in a statement. “It sends a clear message: Maryland is committed to evidence-based policymaking and to ending the criminalization of people living with HIV. We honor the memory of Carlton R. Smith by continuing the work of building a more just, inclusive, and informed society.”
Maryland is the fifth state to decriminalize HIV.
North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong, a Republican, in March signed a bill that decriminalized HIV in his state.
Maryland
A Baltimore theater educator lost jobs at Johns Hopkins and the Kennedy Center
Tavish Forsyth concluded they could not work for Trump
BY WESLEY CASE | Tavish Forsyth had come to a conclusion: They could not work for President Donald Trump.
So the 32-year-old Baltimore resident stripped down, turned on their camera, and lit their career on fire.
“F—— Donald Trump and f—— the Kennedy Center,” a naked Forsyth, an associate artistic lead at the Washington National Opera’s Opera Institute, which is run by the Kennedy Center, said in a video that went viral. The board of the nation’s leading cultural institution had elected Trump just weeks prior as its chairman after he gutted the board of members appointed by his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Maryland
Md. schools plan to comply with federal DEI demands
Superintendents opt for cooperation over confrontation
By LIZ BOWIE | Deciding not to pick a fight with the Trump administration, Maryland school leaders plan to sign a letter to the U.S. Department of Education that says their school districts are complying with all civil rights laws.
The two-paragraph letter could deflect a confrontation over whether the state’s public schools run diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that the Trump administration has called illegal. The Baltimore Banner reviewed the letter, which was shared by a school administrator who declined to be identified because the letter has not yet been sent.
Maryland school leaders are taking a more conciliatory approach than those in some other states. Education leaders in Minnesota, New York, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and Wisconsin said they will not comply with the federal education department’s order, the demands of which, they say, are based on a warped interpretation of civil rights law.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
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Wes Moore signs HIV decriminalization bill
