The scene: Four community leaders — Carlton “The Duchess” Smith, Kevin Clemons, Dana Owens, and Leroy Burgess — attended a Baltimore Pride celebration decades ago. Other attendees scolded them for their jubilation and called them “too loud.” The experience led the men to launch Baltimore Black Gay Pride in 2002, providing a welcoming, affirming space for Baltimore’s Black LGBTQIA+ community in response to a largely white-led gay rights movement and a city still defined by racial segregation.
Over the years, the organization the men started has been known as Baltimore Black Pride, the Center for Black Equity–Baltimore, and since 2016, BLAQ Equity Baltimore. My own experiences in activism and community organizing led me to serve on BLAQ Equity’s board of directors. Our work to amplify Black queer leadership and creativity, build solidarity, advocate for our political interests, and safeguard our community in the face of escalating fascism, white supremacy, and transphobia is more important now than ever before.
After coming out, I spent many of my formative social experiences at Grand Central nightclub or Club Hippo. But these clubs, along with most Baltimore queer establishments, were not created for us. I didn’t know that Black queer spaces existed until I attended my first Baltimore BLAQ Pride at Club Bunns.
Phillip Clark, Board Member (BLAQ Equity Baltimore)
We have celebrated October as BLAQ Pride Month for the past two decades. I am a Black gay man who grew up in Baltimore, spending most of my childhood in West Baltimore and attending a private religious school in Towson. My experience illustrates how necessary it is for us to have our own spaces as Black queer Baltimoreans. After coming out, I spent many of my formative social experiences at Grand Central nightclub or Club Hippo. But these clubs, along with most Baltimore queer establishments, were not created for us. I didn’t know that Black queer spaces existed until I attended my first Baltimore BLAQ Pride at Club Bunns. The block party at Club Bunns was the epicenter of BLAQ Pride for decades until the club sadly closed in 2019 after being a focal point for Black queer life for 30 years. Many clubs such as Odell’s, the Gallery, and Paradox served as outlets for Black queer life in Baltimore’s past. Today, the Drinkery, Leon’s Backroom, and Ziascoz are nightlife spots where we come together as a community.
It took some time for me to forge my own group of Black queer peers who I relate to in all aspects of my identity. Now, I understand the diminishing number of spaces could have contributed to this phenomenon. Black people have always devised unique ways to navigate our lived social, economic, and political experiences in this country in response to white supremacy. Thriving in spaces that affirm our gender identities, sexualities and racial identities is necessary for personal well-being and fuels our collective advancement as Black queer people.
BLAQ Equity remains committed to cherishing and building upon the rich legacy of past Prides and is proud to share the theme for this year’s BLAQ Pride: “Homecoming: The Future is Family.” “Homecoming” celebrates the abundant history and bright future we are charting together as a community, with relationships forming the bedrock of our collective strength. For many of us, our family is the chosen bonds that transcend blood, not the biological relatives who refuse to affirm our queerness. Relationships, community building, and family transcending blood fueled our ancestors’ quest for liberation and guide us today in especially perilous times.
BLAQ Pride Month is a celebration of the shared joys, gifts, creativity and future we are cultivating as a community. We kicked off Pride Month with BLAQ Out Week, held Oct. 4-12, which featured brunch, a faith service, a tattoo pop-up, a creative happy hour, a community mixer, parties (including one specifically focused on kink), a Coming Out Day Rally, and kickball field day.
Our 23rd ICON Awards Gala — named for our late, great, founder and ancestor, Carlton R. Smith — was Oct. 10 at the Lord Baltimore Hotel and honored the brilliance, power and legacy of Black LGBTQIA+ leadership in Baltimore and beyond. The rest of the month is replete with events focused on recreation, media, drag artistry, sexual pleasure, anime, coalition building, and Halloween festivities.
We face more harrowing political obstacles than we’ve seen in decades. The federal government has overtly declared war against Black people and the LGBTQIA+ community. Upon assuming office, the current presidential administration issued an executive order stating the federal government would only recognize two sexes, male and female, erasing the existence of trans people. Another early move attempted to eliminate references to Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad at national parks. Another executive order demanded that the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., remove any exhibits that could “divide Americans based on race.” Subsequently, officials removed a hymnbook owned by Harriet Tubman, a copy of the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas,” and a photo of the hip-hop group Public Enemy from the museum.
The National Park service has removed any mention of transgender people on the website of the Stonewall Inn – a designated National Monument, where trans women of color, including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, were instrumental in leading the Stonewall Uprising galvanizing the burgeoning LGBTQIA+ rights movement in 1969. The administration shut down the 988 Suicide & Crisis Hotline in July, which had provided queer youth navigating mental health crises the opportunity to speak with trained counselors. Efforts are currently underway to push the FBI to categorize all trans people as “violent,” ideologically driven “extremists.” At a time when officials and institutions are eradicating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, blatantly erasing Black and queer history from museums and educational outlets, designating trans people as “violent extremists,” and white supremacist, imperial agendas drive National Guard troops to occupy Black cities, observing Baltimore BLAQ Pride reminds us: We’re all we’ve got.
Confronting these pressing challenges does not negate celebrating our collective light and brilliance as Black queer Baltimoreans. Baltimore BLAQ Pride drives us to hold space for our unique beauty, challenge one another with love, accompany one another through grief and joy, honor our truths, and remain accountable to each other.
Confronting these pressing challenges does not negate celebrating our collective light and brilliance as Black queer Baltimoreans. Baltimore BLAQ Pride drives us to hold space for our unique beauty, challenge one another with love, accompany one another through grief and joy, honor our truths, and remain accountable to each other.
Phillip Clark, Board Member (BLAQ Equity Baltimore)
Join us at any of our events throughout the remainder of BLAQ Pride Month (follow us on IG @bmoreblaqpride) as we discern solutions to these challenges and affirm that our sacred bonds of family will define the path of our shared future toward liberation more than any political institution ever could.
Phillip Clark – Board Member (BLAQ Equity Baltimore)