Pride is important because it’s an insistence that the lives of LGBTQ+ people matter in a world that seeks to ignore them, silence them, scapegoat them, or worse.
That’s why I’m proud that this issue features so many members of Baltimore’s LGBTQ+ community, building and fighting for the world that they deserve.
For this issue, Multimedia Journalist and Editor Sanya Kamidi talked to Jamie Grace Alexander of the Trans Rights Advocacy Coalition about the work the group does and the power of storytelling. The group works in Annapolis, lobbying for legislation aimed at improving the lives of trans Marylanders. Alexander said that she found that the experiences of trans community members who have been incarcerated need to be elevated. Now, the organization is planning listening sessions.
“I really want to cultivate that listening, particularly between members of our coalition who haven’t experienced incarceration and members of our community who have,” Alexander told Kamidi.
This issue also features an op-ed authored by members of The Copycat Tenants Union. This group of low-income, queer renters successfully fought a landlord who was trying to evict them — negotiating a better deal for themselves and learning the power of organizing in the process.
“Marginalized people hear the phrase ‘that violates your rights!’ all the time, as though the information alone should solve our problems. But truthfully, there’s a big difference between knowing you have rights and being able to enforce them,” they write.
Arts and Culture Editor Teri Henderson writes about the group TWUK (The Wh0re You Know). They are, Henderson writes, “a collective of sex workers who support other sex workers in Baltimore through programming and outreach.”
The group has been around for two years — educating sex workers and helping them keep each other safe. That’s important in a world that often stigmatizes and demonizes them.
“I would not say that I created that event, or that I created TWUK,” Missy, one of the group’s board members, told Henderson. “I would say that TWUK was just more something that happened in response to a need for sex workers to find solidarity and find community with one another … That was something I was seeking, but it turns out that a lot of other sex workers were seeking that too.”
Our photostory page features vibrant images shot by photographer Sydney Allen inside The Club Car. The queer venue and cocktail bar occupies the space that formerly housed The WindUp Space and Rituals. The photos were taken during a drag king and dragster showcase curated by boinextdoor, a Baltimore drag king.
Dominic Griffin writes about the film “I Saw the TV Glow,” directed by Jane Schoenbrun.
“‘I Saw the TV Glow’ is a heavy rumination on an element of being trans that ought to speak to plenty of cis folks, too: having the sense that something about your life is very wrong, but being trapped at the precipice of doing anything about it,” Griffin writes.
Make sure you check out our calendars, especially the arts and culture calendar that is fully of Pride events, Juneteenth events, and Father’s Day events. And, as always, we have a poem from a participant in the group Writers in Baltimore Schools. This one is titled “Life Gave Me Lemons,” and is written by Amerah Hawkins.
Thanks for reading, and happy Pride!
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