In Remembrance: Carl Patrick ‘Charles’ Hughes

Carl Patrick “Charles” Hughes, a founding member of the Baltimore Gay Alliance and Gay Community Center of Baltimore, died March 7th in his Charles Village home of 53 years. He was 78 and had been diagnosed with an inoperable aneurysm after suffering a heart attack in October. The aneurysm was the likely cause of his death. Cover image: Charles (right) and Scott Emmons at gay pride in New York in the 1970s Charles, also known as Buster, was born in Palm Beach, Florida, but lived most of his life in Baltimore City. He was the son of Joseph Hughes, a […]

In fond memory of our friend Norman F. Thomas

August 29, 1942 – October 25, 2008 Norman Thomas, one of the founders of the Baltimore Gay Alliance (BGA) and Gay Community Center of Baltimore and one of the first African Americans to own a downtown gift shop, died at Mercy Hospital on October 25th from MRSA, a virulent, antibiotic resistant staph infection.  He was 66 and a lifelong Baltimore resident. Norman was one of a core group of men and women with roots in the anti-Vietnam War, civil rights, and early women’s movements, who came together in 1975 to form BGA, a single purpose gay rights organization that lobbied […]