Havre de Grace To Host Pride Event This Summer: Report

HAVRE DE GRACE, MD — A group in Harford County is planning to hold an Upper Chesapeake Pride event this summer. The Havre de Grace City Council this week considered a proposal for the event to take place in Concord Point Park on June 22.

Together We Will — Harford County/Upper Chesapeake is coordinating the gathering, which falls in Gay Pride Month.

Every June, communities celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month at a time when they recall the riots that took place in June 1969 at Stonewall Inn. Patrons and neighbors protested against police discrimination for six days outside the gay club in New York following a raid there on June 28, 1969. A police officer had allegedly hit a lesbian over the head as he stuffed her into a police vehicle, which sparked a mob of people to throw and burn things.

The pride event in Havre de Grace will take place on Saturday, June 22, at Concord Point Park. It is to be a peaceful affair.

One city council member, William Watson, suggested that the gathering be contained with fencing to shield young people from an event based around sexuality, The Aegis reported.

That did not gain traction, and the proposal was supported by all members of the council, 5-0, and the mayor, whose homosexual brother died of AIDS more than two decades ago, according to The Aegis, which reported the event will include story time, a DJ and support groups.