The 2016 Baltimore Pride Planning Committee had its first meeting in November 2015, and has since grown to a dedicated team of over 30 community members. As expressed at a previous town hall event, many community members were unhappy with how GLCCB procured and managed Pride volunteers, and felt that Pride committee meetings were poorly organized and provided little opportunity for true involvement. In response, we completely restructured our Pride committee and it has proven to be extremely successful. We can all look forward to one of the best Pride celebrations ever.

Our Pride committee is broken up into eight subcommittees: Entertainment, Pride Events, Vendors, Parade, Art & Communication, Grounds & Logistics, Volunteer Coordination, and Youth Pride. Each committee has one or two community co-chairs, who assemble and organize their committees independently. The entire Pride committee is managed by two GLCCB board members: Selina Scipio and Thomas Idoux. The entire operation is supported and maintained by GLCCB president, Jabari Lyles. The leaders of each committee meet monthly, while subcommittees meet as needed. This structure has allowed for increased community involvement, increased accountability, clear division of tasks and responsibilities, and has made it possible for Pride to be 100% volunteer led and organized.

Pride Committee Leadership meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. The committee has met several times since November, and have already nailed down key details about Pride. The committee hopes to announce our 2016 Pride headlining acts and other pride-related events in the coming weeks. Are you interested in becoming involved with Pride 2016? E-mail glccbpride@gmail.com.