Urban Discoveries Baltimore

We don’t know if you know this, but President Obama recently declared June to be National LGBT Month.  So if your knowledge of gay Baltimore stops with John Waters, now’s the time to get out and show your support for the LGBT community.

Maybe the best opportunity to take part in Baltimore’s gay community is the upcoming Baltimore Pride parade and festival, Maryland’s foremost LGBT event.  It takes place June 20 and 21 down in Mount Vernon (on Charles between Baltimore and Eager streets) and out in Druid Hill Park.  There will be about fifteen performers on the Mount Vernon stage on Saturday and another ten or so at Druid Hill on Sunday.  If you can’t wait that long to get started there are quite a few pre-festival events… though we’re sorry to let you know that the date auction already passed.

If you’re looking to stay informed about the gay and lesbian community past just the month of June, then the best local source is probably Gay Life, Baltimore’s LGBT newspaper.  Chock-full of information pertinent to the gay community, it comes out weekly all across the city (a little bit of that pun intended).  As complete as any alt-weekly, Gay Life offers feature stories as well as reviews, op-eds, and regular columns.

If you’re looking to pick up a copy of Gay Life, but maybe some more LGBT-friendly reading material too – something substantial, something with a plot and characters and the like – try Red Emma’s down in Mount Vernon.  While Red Emma’s is an anarchist café, they do have a section devoted entirely to queer literature (not queer theory, you lit-nerd, queer lit), one of the best in the city since Lambda Rising went out of business last year.  (Support your independent bookstore!  Queer or straight!  Do it!)

Any upcoming LGBT events we missed?  What other queer-friendly shops in town should we know about?

Posted in: City Living, Druid Hill, Mount Vernon, Things To Do This WeekendNo Comments