By WESLEY CASE | Charles “Chuck” Bowers, former owner of the storied Baltimore gay club the Hippo and a prominent advocate for Maryland’s LGBTQ community, died Tuesday. He was 81.

Bowers turned the Mount Vernon club — located at the corner of North Charles and West Eager streets — into a judgment-free refuge for queer and straight locals looking to find and express their authentic selves on a packed dance floor.

“He truly tried to make the Hippo a place for everybody — a safe space,” said an emotional Rik Newton-Treadway, who befriended his “mentor” Bowers at the club in 1979.

Bowers, of Mount Vernon, died Tuesday evening in Baltimore of natural causes, said his niece, Cathy Bowers.

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

By DARREONNA DAVIS | Denise Johnson imagined spending Sunday with her daughter, Sophie Lee, eating crabs at the park. Instead, she stood on a Barclay street corner Sunday evening surrounded by nearly 100 people who came to remember her daughter, a transgender woman who was fatally shot there Friday.

The 27-year-old woman was found in the 2400 block of North Calvert Street around 1:15 a.m. Friday, Baltimore Police said in a news release.

Lindsey Eldridge, a police department spokesperson, said it’s unclear if her identity had anything to do with her death and the investigation is ongoing.

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

By JULIE SCHARPER and WESLEY CASE | Soon after Jim Becker came out as gay in 1967, he ducked into a Mount Vernon bar called Leon’s.

In the dark, smoky bar, men used pseudonyms for fear of being outed, as homosexual acts were illegal in Maryland. Bartenders, wary of vice squad raids, would blow a whistle if couples leaned in for a kiss.

But to Becker, arriving at Leon’s was a kind of homecoming. He could explore his identity, connect with other gay men and build community in the anxious years before the 1969 Stonewall uprising, a pivotal moment in the LGBTQ rights movement.

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