University of Baltimore Hosts Celebration of Newly Published History of Baltimore's LGBT Community, Sept. 28
September 11, 2015
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
The publication of LGBT Baltimore, a book of photos and recollections spanning a half century of the history of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Baltimore, will be celebrated at the University of Baltimore on Monday, Sept. 28 beginning at 6 p.m. in the UB Student Center's Bogomolny Room, 21 W. Mt. Royal Ave. The event will also feature an exhibit of photos and artifacts from the GLCCB Collection held by the Special Collections Department of UB's Langsdale Library, as well as remarks, beginning at 7 p.m., from UB President Kurt L. Schmoke, and a talk by LGBT Baltimore author Louise Parker Kelley, who also will sign books. The event is free and open to the public, and copies of the book will be available for purchase.
LGBT Baltimore is the result of an emerging archival effort to preserve and catalog the history of gay culture in the city. For the past three years, Langsdale Library has been an important part of this work, helping gather materials such as newspapers, photos, artifacts, organizational records and much more, and archiving it in Special Collections. For the nearby Mt. Vernon neighborhood, a Baltimore cultural landmark with deep roots in the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender culture, the preservation of these materials signifies an important contribution to sustaining the heritage of the community.
"This army of lovers won so many times in the past 40 years," said Kelley, a leader of the renowned Baltimore Justice Campaign, Pride coordinator and a member of then-Mayor Schmoke's task force for gay and lesbian issues. "Now everyone can gather at the University of Baltimore to celebrate the book that proves with pictures that #LoveWins."
"I was so relieved and pleased when UB volunteered to house the archives of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore [GLCCB] in 2012," notes Richard Oloizia, the book's assistant editor. "The archives was the source of about half of the images in the book."
LGBT Baltimore points out that for many years, Baltimore had an LGBT community, but it was not until the 1960s that this ostracized minority began to demand equality. In 1969, Women: A Journal of Liberation began publication. By the early '70s, the community's 31st Street Bookstore and Metropolitan Community Church were established, as well as Diana Press and the Baltimore Gay Alliance. By 1977, the GLCCB emerged, offering a clinic and gay youth and lesbian support groups. In 1984, Johns Hopkins University's SHARE (Study to Help the AIDS Research Effort) program became a national model for the treatment and etiology of HIV, and the award-winning Chase Brexton Clinic established itself as a key resource for health care for gay people. Now, with the Supreme Court's endorsement of marriage equality, the community is celebrating new triumphs as it looks back in time to acknowledge many milestones of justice.
"The struggle for LGBT equality represents the most important social movement in late 20th- and early 21st- century America," said Ben Blake, the University of Baltimore's archivist. "We are proud to play a part in preserving and making accessible to the public the local chapter of the rich and powerful history of the LGBT community."
Read about LGBT Baltimore in The Baltimore Sun.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Public Affairs and the Merrick School of Business.