UB to host book launch party for 'LGBT Baltimore'

More than 45 years of Baltimore's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender history — from Pride parades to the fight for same-sex marriage — are documented in the book "LGBT Baltimore," receiving a book launch party from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 28.

The event, at the Bogomolny room on the fifth floor of the University of Baltimore's Student Center (21 W. Mount Royal Ave.), will feature talks from author Louise Parker Kelley and UB President Kurt Schmoke. The event, free and open to the public, includes book signings and sales.

"LGBT Baltimore," released by Arcadia Publishing, includes 162 photos mostly culled from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland (GLCCB) archives, housed at UB. Kelley, a GLCCB volunteer and gay rights activist, worked on the book with assistant editors Richard Oloizia and Ben Blake.

"Thanks also go to Baltimore's outrageous bisexual leaders, proud drag queens, openly gay men, wise allies and fierce lesbian feminists who united to defeat bigotry. Mazeltov. We are invisible no more," Kelley wrote in an August piece for Baltimore Gay Life newspaper about the book.

"LGBT Baltimore" is $22.95 and royalties benefit the GLCCB, according to a press release. The book is also available at outlets such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble as well as local bookstores such as Atomic Books and Normal's Books and Records.

For more information, go here.