Red Emma’s

Baltimore has always been a queer place, but in modern times the people who once dreaded that label got organized and pushed back against decades of discrimination. In the late 1960s LGBT folk began meeting in Baltimore’s basements, living rooms and offices and changed the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.    LGBT Baltimore, which has just been published by Arcadia Publishing documents all of this in photographs.  Arcadia specializes in publishing local and regional history titles, and LGBT Baltimore is part of its Images of Modern American series. Arcadia has published eight titles which are pictorial histories of the LGBT communities of various cities: these include Baltimore, San Francisco, Provincetown, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Atlanta, West Hollywood, and Richmond. LGBT Baltimore is ninety-five pages long, and has 162 color and black and white photographs drawn mostly from the archives of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB). The GLCCB's archives, which include photographs, memorabilia, and organizational files, are housed in the Langsdale Library at the University of Baltimore. The book includes an introductory ten page essay which chronicles the social, cultural, and political history of Baltimore's LGBT community.  Author Louise Parker Kelley was active in most LGBT organizations in Baltimore in the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s and has been a volunteer with the GLCCB Archives at University of Baltimore since 2012.  She served on the Executive Board the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore for 9 years, was a founder of the Gay Paper, served as a leader in the Baltimore Justice Campaign (later Equality Maryland), produced LGBT theater, and the Mayor’s Task Force for Gay and Lesbian Issues, served as Pride Chair, as the NAMES Project Local Panel coordinator, worked for HERO and served as a board member for the Chase Brexton Clinic.  She lives with her (now) legal spouse, writer Jessica Weissman, in Maryland.