Latest news with #PrideCenter
CBS News
12-06-2025
- General
- CBS News
Baltimore Pride celebrates 50 years of supporting LGBTQ+ community
Baltimore Pride has been advocating for the LGBTQ+ community for 50 years, starting with a rally near the Washington Monument in the Mount Vernon neighborhood. Cleo Manago, the Pride Center of Maryland CEO, said there was a lot of pain and suffering. Two years after the rally, activists formed the Gay Community Center of Baltimore. "This community was in the shadows," Manago said. "This was a community, regardless of race, that was fighting for its life." Baltimore Pride has evolved Manago said the Gay Community Center of Baltimore started as a small group of people looking for community. It later evolved, but Manago said the group initially lacked diversity. "When it first came into being, it focused on men, and it primarily focused on white gay men," Manago said. Then, the group became the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore after women fought for space within the organization. It became the Pride Center of Maryland in 2019. 50 years of Baltimore Pride history As Manago looked through archives from the University of Baltimore, he found images within the Pride collection. "While these pictures of people are smiling, this was a difficult time, and we had no idea that AIDS was coming," Manago said. In the 1980s, the organization shifted its response to provide resources as the HIV/AIDS epidemic swept through the community. "In the thousands, we were dying left and right," Manago said. "HIV/AIDS was a primary motivator to create the groundswell to lead to support services and care." From there, Manago said the group advocated for same-sex marriage legislation, among other issues. However, he said the fight for equality didn't always include all. "People that looked like me were not heard, were not seen," Manago said. Progress being made Manago said people of color were often left out of the conversation. Since then, he said things have changed and there's been progress. "We have to build on that progress by creating a more authentically inclusive, empowerment, and affirmation-justice seeking agenda," Manago said Now, the Pride Center provides several programs and resources to fully represent the community it serves. Although Manago is unsure of what the future holds for the Pride Center, he said that as he continues to lead the charge there, it will remain a space that truly welcomes all. "I'm going to continue to do work that is reparative, work that creates space that otherwise would not be created," Manago said. Manago said the center is filling in the gaps that were created in the effort for justice. He said it's important that everyone feels seen and safe at the Pride Center of Maryland.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Judge rules in favor of Naples Pride drag performance. When is Pride Month? Florida events
An outdoor drag performance will be part of Naples Pridefest, thanks to a federal judge's May 12 order. Naples Pride filed suit after city officials denied a permit for an outdoor drag performance, instead requiring it be held indoors and restricted to adults only. District Judge John Steele granted a preliminary injunction, saying the drag performance is protected speech under the First Amendment. A day after the ruling, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier called the decision "both radical and wrong." The ruling came just weeks ahead of Naples Pridefest, scheduled for June 7, 2025, during Pride Month. Florida Attorney General: Federal judge's ruling on Naples Pride 'radical and wrong' Here's what to know about Pride Month and Pride events across Florida: June is Pride Month, with events celebrating the LGBTQ+ community. Pride Month is celebrated in June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots. According to History, the riots started in the early hours of June 28, 1969, when New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village, and roughly hauled out employees and patrons. This led to six days of protests and violent clashes with police on Christopher Street and the surrounding area. The Stonewall Riots were a catalyst for the gay rights movement. Parades, events and other festivities are held to honor LGBTQ experiences and draw attention to issues the community faces. Naples Pridefest is scheduled for Saturday, June 7, 2025 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Cambier Park in Naples. Organizers say the event draws over 5,000 attendees annually. "Funds raised during the event will support Naples Pride in its ongoing efforts and provide much needed funding to continue the lifesaving services at the Naples Pride Center including health & wellness services, LGBTQ+ safe resources, a safe community space, suicide prevention resources, youth and senior programs and much, much more," the Naples Pride website reads. St. Pete Pride's June festivities feature nine official Pride month events and is "Florida's largest LGBTQIA+ Pride celebration," according to organizers. The organization's Pride Parade Day and Festival draws "hundreds of thousands of marchers, attendees, and supporters to the beautiful downtown waterfront to celebrate the strength, diversity, and vibrancy of our community." The parade is scheduled for June 28, from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. The Wilton Manors Stonewall Pride Parade and Street Festival pays homage to the 1969 Stonewall Riots, also known as the Stonewall Uprising. The Wilton Manors Stonewall Pride Parade and Street Festival takes place on Wilton Drive in Wilton Manors on Saturday, June 14, 2025. Here's a sampling of upcoming Pride events and celebrations across Florida: Memorial Weekend Pensacola/Pensacola LGBTQIA+ Memorial Day Weekend: May 22-26, 2025 Orlando Pride Month and Pulse Remembrance events: May 28 - June 12 One Magical Weekend Orlando/Walt Disney World: May 29-June 2, 2025 Project Pride SRQ's 2025 Grand Carnival: May 31, 2025 Treasure Coast Pride Fest: June 1, 2025 Naples Pridefest: June 7, 2025 West Palm Beach Pride on the Block: June 7, 2025 Gay Days at Disney World Orlando: June 5-8, 2025 Wilton Manors Stonewall Pride: June 14, 2025 Spacecoast Pride Rainbow Run: June 21, 2025 Key West Pride: June 22-29 PensaPride Festival: June 28, 2025 This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Pride Month in Florida: Where to celebrate Pride events, dates
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Federal cuts for HIV research, prevention and treatment impacting South Florida
Just in the first few months of 2025, Robert Boo's Pride Center discovered four people in Broward County who had HIV through its free testing at churches, festivals, pharmacies and nightclubs. 'If we weren't testing, those four people could spread to four more, and it could quickly start spreading out of control,' Boo said. 'The people spreading it aren't even going to know they are doing it.' The Pride Center's $350,000 grant for HIV testing runs through June and funding hasn't been renewed yet. With so many federal cuts, it may not be. 'If it isn't renewed, there will be an impact in South Florida,' Boo said, adding that he fears a surge of new cases in Broward County. South Florida, an area with the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the country, is already starting to feel the effects of the Trump Administration's federal cuts to funding for research, prevention, and access to treatment for the disease. Since January, the state's large universities have lost nearly $30 million remaining on terminated federal research grants for studies that include scaling interventions locally to end HIV, reducing risk among Hispanic youth, and increasing prevention (PrEP) enrollment in Latino gay men. The Florida Department of Health has eliminated positions in its HIV program, including the statewide AIDS drug assistance program patient care director. Disease surveillance at the state level also is threatened. 'These are the people who oversee statistical reporting of HIV,' said Dr. Elizabeth Sherman, a member of HIV Medicine Association's board of directors and an associate professor of pharmacy practice at Nova Southeastern University. 'It's important to know what populations are seeing upticks of HIV rates so we can focus interventions to those folks. When they cut people who oversee surveillance, it hampers our ability to limit transmission before it starts to spread.' As of March 24, the Florida Department of Health had been slated to lose $495 million in budgeted funds provided to the state to detect, prevent, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks, including HIV. A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's move to cut that public health funding after 23 states and the District of Columbia sued to keep the funding intact. Local clinic directors say it's not just funding cuts affecting HIV care: Their foreign-born patients are asking for 90-day prescriptions, telehealth calls, and postponements of blood tests to avoid coming in out of fear of being deported — even when they are in the U.S. legally. 'What is going on with deporting people and making people afraid already has impacts that we are seeing in the clinic,' said Sherman, who helps at a Broward clinic. 'People are not picking up their medications. They are not coming to get their labs drawn. That is how HIV becomes uncontrolled and how it spreads.' Every day, Sherman talks to people living with HIV who are worried that they will lose access to their life-sustaining medications or insurance should the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program or Medicaid experience funding cuts. People who have been living with HIV for decades are afraid of returning to the 1980s era when they saw friends dying of AIDS, which occurs at the most advanced stages of infection. 'There's a lot of panic and confusion,' she said. 'Once you break any link in the chain, cut any funding for doctor visits, lab appointments, medications, the whole chain becomes undone and now you have uncontrolled transmission.' Meanwhile, federal actions do not bode well for eradicating HIV/AIDS or curbing new diagnoses. As of early 2024, more than 128,000 people in Florida are living with HIV — about 59,000 of them in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. On Tuesday, the Trump administration laid off thousands of federal health workers, including teams leading HIV surveillance, prevention, and research and a group of global health researchers working to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child. Days earlier, the Administration dismissed the entire staff of the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV Policy, which directed initiatives within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, such as the initiative to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The loss of staff and initiatives will trickle down to states like Florida that rely heavily on federal funding for public health initiatives. Florida is one of six states awarded CDC funding dedicated to lowering HIV infections, which helps pay for medicine like pre-exposure prophylactics (PrEP) for at-risk patients. 'Right now, we don't know what cuts will occur at the state level, but I'm sure that's coming soon,' said Joey Wynn, chairman of the South Florida AIDS Network. 'It has everyone on edge.' Many community programs with HIV services in South Florida are funded through June 30, the end of their fiscal year. Boo at the Pride Center is just one of the organizations uncertain of their future source of funding. 'For now, we are all still operating on money allocated a year ago,' Wynn said. 'The first wave of what we feel here will be in July with the loss of new money.' Von Biggs, Holy Cross Health Community Health & Well-Being Community Outreach coordinator, said Broward advocates who work to curb HIV transmission regularly battle a lack of education about prevention, the stigma associated with getting tested, and the red tape required to see a doctor and access medication. He still sees young people with new HIV diagnoses, sometimes advanced HIV. 'Our goal is 95-95-95,' he said. 'That means 95% of people who are living with HIV knowing their HIV status, 95% of these people on antiretroviral treatment, and 95% of those on treatment being virally suppressed. We haven't attained our goal yet.' Biggs believes that private funders and nonprofits will need to step in to fill the void created by any loss of public grants. 'We just need to figure out how to get information into their hands,' he said. 'It has to be a multi-faceted approach, and we have to work it from all angles.' Even with turmoil at the federal level, Biggs is hopeful that pharmaceutical companies will continue to progress in their trials to eliminate the symptoms of HIV or find a cure. 'I hope in my lifetime to see the end of the HIV epidemic,' he said. Trials for long-acting injectable medications are promising, including Gilead Sciences' lenacapavir, an injectable drug that protects people for six months with each shot. In addition, seven people had been cured of AIDS following a stem-cell transplant from a donor carrying genes that are partially resistant to HIV. In Boca Raton, progress in HIV detection is advancing. Despite federal cutbacks, researchers at Florida Atlantic University received phase 2 of a $1.3 million federal grant in February to develop a low-cost, at-home disposable HIV test. FAU researcher Waseem Asghar said a challenge in combating HIV is the lack of a self-test that can detect new infections during the first two weeks or identify a rebound in patients on antiviral drugs. 'If the test is easy to do at home, we might be able to fight back and limit transmission,' Asghar said. 'It could be particularly helpful in communities far from a doctor's office.' Unlike expensive HIV tests today, FAU researchers expect theirs to cost less than $5 each. Asghar said one in four people in Florida infected with HIV are not on suppressive treatment, so the test could play a significant role in helping them learn their status. Acknowledging the recent cuts to federal research funding, Asghar said his grant shows HIV is still an important area of study. South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@ or on X @cindykgoodman.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Indiana State University, Pride Center, settle federal lawsuit
Pride Fest will take place at the city of Terre Haute's Fairbanks Park in September, and Indiana State University will be a nonfinancial sponsor. That's according to a joint statement regarding the settlement of a federal lawsuit filed by the Pride Center of Terre Haute against the university. ISU, the Pride Center and city of Terre Haute issued a joint statement Thursday 'regarding Pride Fest 2025 and the amicable resolution of the lawsuit.' The ACLU of Indiana filed the suit Feb. 11 in U.S. District Court on behalf of the Pride Center of Terre Haute. The lawsuit asserted that ISU was violating the First Amendment rights of the Pride Center, and it asked the court to order ISU to allow the Pride Center to hold Pride Fest 2025 on the ISU campus in August 2025, similar to past years. The lawsuit alleged that ISU, without the The Pride Center's knowledge, secured an agreement from the city of Terre Haute to hold Pride Fest at Fairbanks Park, off campus, in 2025. Last month, ISU and the Pride Center reached a 'resolution in principle,' according to court documents. News of the resolution was announced Thursday in joint statement emailed by the university. The complete text said: 'Indiana State University is thankful for the continued partnership with the Pride Center of Terre Haute, and we look forward to the ongoing success of Pride Fest. 'Indiana State University and the Pride Center have agreed to resolve this dispute. Indiana State University will be a non-financial sponsor of the 2025 festival and looks forward to working with the Pride Center and student organizations on issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community. In turn, the city of Terre Haute is proud to host Pride Fest 2025 at Fairbanks Park, this September.' The Pride Center, a nonprofit organization serving LGBTQ+ individuals in and around Vigo County, held Pride Fest on the ISU campus in both 2023 and 2024. The festival was sponsored each year by ISU, according to ACLU. It was staged in the Quad, an open area on the ISU campus designated for 'expressive activity' by both ISU policies and Indiana law. Katie Lugar, Pride Center president, referred comment to the ACLU of Indiana. The Tribune-Star has reached out to the ACLU for comment.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ISU, Pride Center resolve lawsuit
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Indiana State University has resolved a lawsuit filed by an LGBT support group and the American Civil Liberties Union over an annual gay pride event. The Pride Center and the ACLU sued the school, claiming that school officials prevented the group from holding Pride Fest on campus. College leaders denied that claim. The parties issued a joint statement Thursday afternoon. 'Indiana State University is thankful for the continued partnership with the Pride Center of Terre Haute, and we look forward to the ongoing success of Pride Fest. Indiana State University and the Pride Center have agreed to resolve this dispute,' the statement reads. 'Indiana State University will be a non-financial sponsor of the 2025 festival and looks forward to working with the Pride Center and student organizations on issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community. In turn, the City of Terre Haute is proud to host Pride Fest 2025 at Fairbanks Park, this September.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
