The Portal was a Baltimore

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

community center for LGBT African Americans in the

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

. It was owned and maintained by ''Empowering New Concepts, Inc.'' ENC, Inc. is a non-profit,

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

community based organization established in 2001 by current CEO Rickie Green. Intended as a safe place for LGBT people of color, they offered health and safety information including AIDS awareness. The Portal "promotes stronger, more effective

same gender loving Same-gender-loving, or SGL, a term coined for African American and African Diaspora use by activist Cleo Manago, is a description for homosexuals in the African American community. It emerged in the early 1990s as a culturally affirming African Ame ...

communities of color through access to quality healthcare and economic and educational services." They served

men who have sex with men Men who have sex with men (MSM) are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex. The term was created in the 1990s by epidemiology, epidemiologists to study the spread of disease among all men who have sex with men, r ...

as well as

women who have sex with women Women who have sex with women (WSW) are women who engage in sexual activities with other women, whether they identify themselves as lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual, or dispense with sexual identification altogether. The term ''WSW'' is often ...

History

It was first opened on August 19, 2002, at 302 Park Avenue, 1st floor, and was reopened on September 16, 2004 at 16 South Calvert Street, in the heart of the Financial District, and again on September 1, 2005, at its current location at 2419 Greenmount Avenue Suites 1 and 4. In 2005 they participated in the

amicus brief An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...

supporting "Right to Same Sex Marriage in Maryland" In October 2005 they were awarded a 2006 Annie E. Casey Foundation Families and Children Grant for their direct services program ''YBU (Why Be You)'', a "group level intervention for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth, designed to address homophobia in the schoolsystem". In 2007 they presented "Confronting

internalized oppression In social justice theory, internalized oppression is a concept in which an oppressed group accepts the methods and incorporates the oppressive message of the oppressing group against their own best interest. Rosenwasser (2002) defines it as believi ...

as a barrier to self-care among Black MSM: The RISE intervention" as part of the 138th Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Public Health Association. In 2008 they presented "Building On Our Strengths" at the ''Black Gay Men/MSM and HIV/AIDS: Confronting the Crisis and Planning for Action'' technical conference convened by The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD). In 2009 they organized a

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

Public Forum to coincide with

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immun ...

. They were also selected as a "funded local partner organization" by the NIAID HIV Vaccine Research Education Initiative. In May 2010, in conjunction with

World AIDS Vaccine Day {{No footnotes, date=March 2009 World AIDS Vaccine Day, also known as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, is observed annually on May 18. HIV vaccine advocates mark the day by promoting the continued urgent need for a vaccine to prevent HIV infection and A ...

, they presented ''AESTHETICS: Perception... (& the Eye of the Beholder)'', theatre, spoken word, music, and dance performances at

Maryland Institute College of Art The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the oldest art colleges in the U ...

. This was their third year in a row doing so.Bradford McIntyre, "HIV Vaccine Awareness Day - 18 May 2010", 2010.

References

{{coord, 39.317848, -76.608953, region:US_type:landmark_scale:5000, display=t African-American history in Baltimore African-American LGBT organizations Buildings and structures in Baltimore Defunct African-American LGBT organizations Defunct organizations based in Maryland East Baltimore Midway, Baltimore LGBT community centers in the United States LGBT in Maryland LGBT culture in Baltimore

History

See also

References