Celebrate Pride Month In Bel Air, Harford County At Special Movie Screening, Ball Game

HARFORD COUNTY, MD — Pride Month started Thursday and continues through June with several ways in Bel Air and surrounding areas to participate in the celebration of LGBTQ culture, rights and identity.

State Theater in Havre de Grace will be screening the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" Saturday at midnight. For each ticket sold, $5 of the proceeds will go to UCBPride for their scholarship fund. Use promo code "UCBPRIDE" when purchasing tickets.

Free to Be, a community-based LGBTQ+ program that offers monthly get-togethers for teens ages 12-17 to find support, guidance and a sense of community, kicks off Pride Month Friday at 6 p.m. with a special event. Be sure and register in advance, according to organizers.

Upper Chesapeake Bay Pride and the Maryland LGBT Chamber of Commerce will host an Iron Birds Pride Night at the Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium June 9. Gates will open at 6 p.m. and the first pitch will be at 7 p.m. Tickets can be bought at https://tinyurl.com/2p92azsa.

Pride Month occurs during June in deference to the Stonewall Uprising, a tipping point in the struggle for equality among people who identify as LGBTQ. New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. Such raids were common, but patrons fought back, resulting in days of violent clashes across Greenwich village.

The observance started as Gay Pride Day on the last Sunday in June, but soon grew to the point that June calendars are packed with pride parades, parties, workshops, symposiums and concerts across the nation and around the world.

Pride Month 2023 occurs amid a historic surge in bills targeting LGBTQ rights, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Nearly 500 pieces of legislation nationwide have been filed in state legislatures this year, according to the ACLU tracking.

“LGBTQ people are under fire, unlike possibly ever before and across virtually every aspect of our lives,” Logan S. Casey, a senior researcher at Movement Advancement Project, told The Washington Post in April. “This is part of a very clear and identifiable national effort in state legislatures that is and has been going on for years — and it’s really culminating this year.”