creating safe spaces: pride, advocacy, and radical inclusion with Joe Toolan

in this inspiring episode, host jazzmyn proctor sits down with joe toolan — board chair of annapolis pride — to talk about the real power of community activism, especially within the lgbtq+ community. 🌈

joe shares the evolution of annapolis pride, the advocacy work happening behind the scenes, and why creating truly inclusive spaces matters more now than ever.
 we dive into:
 ✨ supporting lgbtq+ youth with purpose and compassion
 ✨ tackling substance abuse + mental health stigma
 ✨ building intersectional movements that leave no one behind
 ✨ organizing pride with joy, resistance, and radical visibility

with pride month here — and the annapolis pride parade + festival happening may 31st — this episode is a reminder that local activism is world-changing work. 🏳️‍🌈

we also talk safety strategies, the role of local government, and how you can get involved through volunteering and showing up with heart.

Transcript

 Hello everybody. Welcome back to all our parts. Welcome to all our Parts. If you're new, I am your host, Jasmine Proctor. Today I have a friend, he is the board chair of Annapolis Pride as we're gearing up for this year's parade and Festival and Pride month. Of course. Joe Toolan, thank you for joining me today.

I'm so glad to be here. It's so good to see you and I'm excited to chat. 

Yes. So Joe and I actually connected, I was on the board of Annapolis Pride two years ago, and it was really nice getting involved in the local community, being able to just learn the space of Annapolis, learn how we could get involved.

And I think as Joe and I were talking offline, and thinking about how we wanted to. Present this episode to you all. We were just talking about the value of community involvement, especially in this current political climate. 

Yeah, and I think, we're just seeing so many people, unfortunately, that have their rights on the line right now, and so I sit around, especially when I'm doing pride work, and I just remain so grateful that this community is doing this work here.

It's like a wonderful thing that's happening. 

Absolutely. So tell us about Annapolis Pride. 

Sure. So Annapolis Pride it's been in existence I think officially as a nonprofit for six years. There were a couple of years, obviously during something that we like to call a global pandemic where we didn't get to meet in person.

We've been around for six years. And really we were started by a group of lgbtq plus people here in Annapolis that saw the need for more visibility in our community. And it's such a funny origin story. Like the group of founders, the founder himself, Jeremy Browning is still working in the community in Maryland.

And a lot of the other founders are still involved in the board to this day. On the advisory committee, but they asked the mayor to proclaim June as Pride month. And the mayor did exactly that in and this was, the ask came in 2018. And then in his proclamation he said that in 2019 and Apples would host its first pride parade.

And so the group of organizers really had to. Put together a pride parade in the next year for the community. And that's initially how Annapolis Pride got started. And to this day, the Parade and Festival is our largest event throughout the year. But we do a lot of other things. In the community we post different types of events throughout the year.

It's not just one month that we're proud of who we are. We also do a lot of advocacy when it comes to legislative session here in Maryland. Letting folks know of bills that may or may not be going through, like the city council or the county council that might need our support. And really just bringing together community around visibility, providing services to folks and, building, building our little community here.

Absolutely. You all also do a lot of work with youth advocacy as well too, in allowing space to incorporate youth oriented activities, not only in the PR Pride Parade and Festival, but as well as throughout the year. 

Yeah, and that's such a big piece of our work, and I think. We've done some kind of remarkable things because of that.

We're part of a local coalition for lgbtq plus students, and in partnership with them, we were able to pass a safe and inclusive schools policy here in our county to make sure that lgbtq students have a safe space. And then yes, we try to find great ways to, engage the community, and I'm gonna give a sneak peek here at something that we're putting together for the end of Pride month, but we're hosting a teen dance party in Annapolis.

It's gonna take place at Art Farm and so we're still firming up the final date and time, but stay plugged into Annapolis Pride because that's another event that we're planning right now that's really targeted at the youth and our community who might need a safe space to go to. 

I love that I love how creative you all have gotten throughout the years in incorporating events that are not only pride, but advocacy related, youth related, but also like non-alcoholic, like being able to create spaces where queer people can convene, discuss, and because substance use is such a huge.

Part of our community, being able to truly provide inclusive spaces is something that you all have been working towards. 

Yeah, and that's really important. I'm very public about this, but I myself struggled with substance abuse for a while. And it's something that unfortunately we're not really given the space to talk about quite often.

We're not really given the space to process. And it's really important to make sure that. We have spaces that are inclusive for everybody. Maybe it's a coffee meetup or at least a space where it's not just alcoholic drinks that are available, but there are mocktails that were available. And so last year with our Queen Jayla, who's been around from the beginning of pride, Jayla had a cocktail and Joe had a mocktail and we had that like little menu, which was super cute, but it's important.

And we're seeing more and more. Here in Annapolis, there are other businesses or entities that are really supportive. So like bread and butter. Monica who owns it, is one of the best. She's a veteran. It's a woman-owned business and she now does sober game nights there. And so we spread the word and a lot of pride folks have showed up at those events as well.

And it's really awesome to watch like the sober community and not just sober people, but people that might be sober curious or just want a space where drinking isn't a pressure, come together and have fun. So it's been awesome to watch that sort of happen. 

It's highlighting the value of inclusivity, but also intersectionality, which is something we were just also discussing offline.

You all aren't just creating spaces specifically for the queer community, but also allowing. Space for sober people, but also getting involved in advocacy that involves schools, homelessness, all I think now more than ever, it's really important that we are taking steps towards advocating not only for the communities that we're a part of, but also coming together, aligning and really lifting one another up.

Yeah, and that's something that, my own background like leads to a lot of, why I am so passionate about that as well. And as a board, even before I was on our founder, I. Wanted anti-racism to be baked into the work of Annapolis Pride. And the first summer of the pandemic in 2020 that was when I think yet again, police violence specifically against black folks really came to the surface.

Again with the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Annapolis Pride partnered with some of the local black leaders that summer. We printed some special edition Black Lives Matter shirts and the proceeds went to black and African American members of the community. And that march of solidarity, that summer, even though there wasn't a parade we were all standing out in the streets with our masks on, but it was so needed to show that even here in Annapolis, which, I would say like the downtown area is not always the most inclusive, but we're here and we're not going anywhere and we're gonna support each other no matter what happens. And so it's so great that it's been baked into the work of pride from the very beginning 

and thinking of the name, all our parts, it's.

People are multifaceted. And so when we're thinking about advocacy, when we're thinking about the communities that we're a part of, we're not just a part of the lgbtqia plus community. We're not just people of color. We are not just our gender identities, we are all of these things together. And I always hate the debate, like if you had to choose one because.

Most of us do not have the luxury or the privilege to just choose one. We need to make sure that if the spaces aren't there, that we are creating spaces where all identities are what we can bring our whole selves to the room. 

I love that is like the goal of even the name that you have here because it is so important and I think.

Right now too. I've been having a lot of conversations in the community and with different people and it is important that we learn also, not just to bring our full selves to the table, but learn other people's full selves and who they are. There is a lot of fear right now, especially in the immigrant community, given what we see happening at the federal level.

And so as a queer brown person like that, stress. Has been at like a level that I don't think I've ever felt before. And I'm very privileged and I am a, I'm a naturalized citizen, but I'm a citizen and I'm still stressed. And so I have no idea how like our undocumented siblings feel. And we've had a lot of people throughout the history of pride, come and say, Hey, it's not safe for me to be sent back to my country.

Can you help us with. Seeking asylum and applying for that. And each one of us in the community here in Annapolis brings a different perspective, brings their beautiful selves to the table. But also we'll have unique needs that, we get to learn who people are, how to support them, how to support each other, and that's really cool.

I love that you bring that up. 'cause as you're talking about that I'm thinking about with the heightened fear of. Immigration for a lot of folks, as well as maintaining and keeping these spaces really safe. It has been an ongoing debate around what security presence, what police presence looks like at Parade and festival events, specifically surrounding pride.

How has Annapolis pride put in place different parameters to ensure that all people feel safe at this event? 

Yeah, so we've done some work and we've done a little bit of extra work this year that I'll talk about, but even from the beginning we recognize that there is obviously tension in our community, especially around figures of authority, if that's a police officer in uniform.

Because if you think about how the modern day, like pride started, it was really a battle between police and between specifically. Trans people of color in particular, and so we know that it is very hard to,

that will like,

all right, I think. When it comes to police, we know that the history with police and with people in uniform started at Stonewall. It started in the modern sort of era of this pride movement as a fight specifically between police and trans people of color in particular. So we know that there's a lot that we have to do to build trust on all fronts with this.

And so one of the first things that Annapolis Pride did when it started was it went to the Annapolis Police Department and said, Hey, we would like somebody who can be a liaison for our community to really get to know the community, to get to know the needs of the community, and to get to know how they can better serve members of our community.

And that, is Captain Mages on the Annapolis team. She's still working with us six years later. But she's done a lot of work to get into the community, to let people know the training that they have. We've hosted community conversations with the LGBTQ plus community and both county and city police so that we can have these difficult conversations.

And we know that some of these conversations they're not gonna solve systemic issues here, but we are building trust around the folks that do care about our community, who might be police and our species. One of the other things that we've done very specifically is that yes, there does need to be security at these events.

Police will have to be there because if you think about it, if there is a bad actor. That came and wanted to harm the community. We do want police on our side who are there ready to go into action. And so typically with the police, we ask that if they're gonna be in the Parader Festival, they're not in uniform, they're plain clothed, they're not armed.

And that way they seem, frankly, like not as intimidating as they could be otherwise. We also, this year in particular, have been doing a lot more training with the police to prep ourselves on emergency response, knowing the heightened maybe scrutiny is not the right word, but just the heightened maybe tension here, country anticipating in the country right now.

We've worked really hard. Even we have private security that we hire for the Parade Festival. We have meetings with them leading up about frankly, their demeanor and how they're showing up and what their policies are if there are issues. And so very similar to the police, we get specially printed shirts for our security.

They're in neon colors, so you can easily find them. But again, the goal is so that they're not. In a scary uniform at this event, but you can still find them if you need something. And so we do try to be really intentional about engaging with these, figures who, most of them are okay, but again, we're never gonna fix the systemic issues.

So we do what we can. 

When you share, I hear you emphasizing the value of conversations. A lot of fear is fear of the unknown, fear of what is truly on the other side. And the best way that we can really disseminate any misconceptions or perceptions or generalizations that we have is through conversation.

Being able to create bridges and create building blocks for a stronger community where people in power and people of marginalized identities can continue to explore what it looks like to work in collaboration. Of course, we're discussing the heightened fear that. Is typically always present, but especially in this current election season, it is heightened and everyone is feeling the instability the chaos.

But joy is also a form of resistance, celebration, being able to come together and. Celebrate who we are and remind people that they don't get to take that away from us. And so segueing into that, what do you all have lined up this year? 

Yeah. Before I even jumped into what's lined up. I completely agree.

It's so funny. Like the end of last year, I don't wanna say I was in like a little bit of a rut, but maybe I was, but like I, for example, didn't have my nails painted at the end of the year as I usually do. And when the election results came around, I was like, now is the time for me to be more bold than I ever have been.

It's not the time for me to hide who I am. It's not the time for me to. Shrink down because the reality is that's what they want. They want us to feel small. They want us to feel alone. And so anything we can do to come together and to be in community, that is a form of resistance, and that's us standing in our power.

So I'm so glad you brought that up. And yeah. So this year Annapolis pride is typically the first, saturday in June. The elephant in the room is that World Pride is in DC the first full weekend in June. And so we have shifted a little bit this year, so it is a little bit different if folks may have come out before in the past.

Our Parade and Festival will actually be on May 31st, so the last day of May. But that's very exciting because we can tell you get your pride month started with Annapolis Pride. Like you're ready, you're jumping into the month in celebration. And our parade and festival. Like I said, it's May 31st.

The parade itself will start a little bit earlier this year. It'll start at 11:00 AM and it'll run down West Street, very similar to what we've had in the past. Annapolis City Dock is unfortunately under construction this year, so we're starting up on Calvert Street. Right where the state employee garage is.

And then it'll come down West Street from there. The festival will run from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM and we have some great entertainment that we're working on getting lined up right now. I believe we have 180 vendors that have signed up to be at the festival. More than we've ever had before, which is so exciting.

And the festival will take place at Maryland Hall and so it really has become one of the largest events in Annapolis, which is crazy after just a couple of years. But we're also doing events around the Pride Festival as well.

And the Thursday before, I believe the date is the 29th. We're doing a fundraiser at the Chesapeake Base Ox, formerly the buoy base they renamed themselves last year, and I still get it wrong. And so they're gonna be hosting a fundraiser for us. I believe the first pitch is at six 15 that night.

And we'll have a ticket link that gets sent out via social media and via our newsletter. Really soon. It's just not ready just yet. And then we're doing some of our usual events right afterwards. So on June 1st there's gonna be an ecumenical service for those folks that are inclined to go and seek out a higher power of some sort.

And so that'll be at eSport United Methodist Church at 3:00 PM we're gonna be doing our typical fundraiser with forward Brewing, and so they have a special brew concocting for pride and that first week of sales following the Parade Festival proceeds will come back to Annapolis Pride.

And the sort of like official event will be on Tuesday, June 3rd. Usually it starts around 4:00 PM and it'll go until seven or 8:00 PM and we'll be there. We'll have merch, we'll have things for sale. And then also we're gonna be doing an event at Bread and Butter, which we've talked about a little bit already.

And so Thursday, June 5th, we're gonna be doing an event called Pride on the Pier so people can go out, be outside, it's right on the water. There will probably be a dj. We'll have some great food catered by bread and butter. And so again, it's another space for people to come together, be on the water, be outside, and be in communities.

Pride on the Pier was one of my favorite events. It is one of my favorite events because it's such a relaxed environment. Being by the water is so beautiful and it's just a great way to connect with people. 

Yeah, I remember last year you came and we got cute pictures together in the sunset it's a great time and yeah, it's a little more low key, which after 

a big weekend event. It's a little bit nice to have something a little more low key, 

and it'll be an amazing segue into world pride. I think having, again, as we talked about intersectionality, a little bit of. Everything, especially as we think of people who are differently abled, people who may not be able to stand out in the parade for hours or, overheat, a multitude of things that make the parade sometimes inaccessible for people like having other options is so valuable.

Yeah, and that's something that we have really been so big on too, is just having the different type of events and having things come together. One of the other things that we're working on this year, and again, still in progress, so I don't have all the details, but this is my plug yet again to follow an Apples pride.

'cause that is where you will find all of the details. But we are working with some of our local entities to provide a special viewing area for people with disabilities. That way there's a space dedicated that's not in the middle of the craziness, that might be a little bit of a, like less craziness, less sensory overload, just like a space for people who might need some different support in viewing the parade and festival itself.

And more information for that, like I said, will be coming out in the coming weeks and days as well. But we are working on creative ways to continue to make pride as inclusive as possible as we do it. That even goes down to planning with our shuttle service to make sure that we have accessible buses available shuttling people from Navy Stadium, down to the parade and festival area.

So it's really at the core of how we think through making the events inclusive. 

Sounds like there are so many opportunities for people to get involved with Annapolis Pride. 

Yes. So we have a form, it's on our website. If people wanna volunteer for the Parade Festival, they can go click it and fill out their information.

And it can look like a variety of different things. Maybe we want somebody who's just gonna come and help with one of the satellite events, the events around Pride, and they might help sell merch at a table. For the Pride Day itself, it's all hands on deck. We need a lot of support. If people want to come and sell merch at our merch table, they can do that.

If people like, monitoring and looking over areas. We have people that are like assigned to different sections of the parade and festival where they can come and help. Make sure that just, if anybody needs anything, there's somebody there making sure that we're being safe. And we also will be having people can help run water around.

It tends to be really hot. We wanna make sure that water's available for everyone. So no matter who you are. If you wanna get involved there's a link on our website, on the Parade and Festival page where you can fill out your information to volunteer. And we are always looking for people throughout the year who wanna be involved in Pride.

And a couple of things that I always uplift is that we're always looking for new board members also this year it's actually my last year as the chair of the board, which is. Crazy to think about. But I will be rolling off this fall and a couple other folks who have been on for basically the same amount of time that I am, have come to the end of our allotted.

Years of service. And if you love nonprofits or if you just want to be involved in community you're welcome to reach out to us. Our general email is info@annapolispride.org and somebody will get back to you if you're interested in board service. We also have an advisory committee, so if you really want to be involved, but like you can't come to a board meeting every month 'cause.

It is a lot of work. We're a mostly volunteer organization. An advisory committee might be a little bit of a better route, and the advisory committee are people who want to be involved. They believe in our mission. But we typically ask them to come together twice a year for some like big picture strategy and like things there.

And so another way that you could be involved, if you really believe in Annapolis Pride. 

Tell us, 'cause both of us have mentioned being a part of the board. I believe both of us joined around the same time during the pandemic. And so it's absolutely wild to hear that so many people that I started with are now rolling off.

But can you give people an idea of what the commitment looks like being a part of the board? 

Yeah, it can look almost whatever you want it to look like. And so I will say it is a time commitment, unfortunately. Like I said, we are a volunteer working board. We're not a governing board like maybe larger nonprofits have.

But for me, I'm the board chair. So like I could tell you I work every day for a lot of hours, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's not super helpful for the general volunteer, but what I can say is. For the rest of our board members, there are a couple of things that we ask. Every month we have one board meeting a month, which is two hours.

We have committee meetings, which is usually another hour. So every board member we ask to join one of our committees that could be parade and festival. That could be advocacy and communications. If you're a more of a behind the scenes person, we have internal affairs, which tracks our finances or governance, which helps to make sure that we have all the policies in place to function as a board.

And so when I say board service can look like anything you want it to. If you have a passion for one aspect of the work that we do and you wanna come and join the board to do that, we probably have a place where you can come and bring those skills and bring that expertise and find a place amongst the board.

But I would say, it's definitely a commitment. At least two hours a week. So probably, what is that? Eight to 10 hours a month? Is the commitment. It can be more if you want it to be more. We love it to be more if you want it to, but we also recognize that, people have families, people have other commitments, people have day jobs.

And so we want it to be as flexible as possible for anybody who wants to come and join the board. 

And especially as folks are like sitting at home listening right now. I think it's also a great opportunity for us to remember that there is still so much change that we can enact within our own communities, that while we see the political administration stripping rights left and right.

Making calls for people that they have absolutely no business but are truly dismantling communities and groups of people. We as a community, as people who live in the society together, we can. There is still so much that we can do to help our neighbors to, to help support folks even if we are not a part of that community.

Taking some of that community responsibility again and looking at how you can help your neighbor. Being a part of the board of Annapolis pride is one of those ways that you all can do that.

And I think that's super important because one of the things that I continue to talk a lot about is just the real impact that we have. Even if the federal government is trying hard as it might to take our rights away, we're still finding ways to win at the local level. So an example of that is that this year, after, I think it's probably been like 16 years of getting a bill introduced to decriminalize HIV here in Maryland, the bill passed this year.

And that bill, if people don't know what it is, in Maryland, if you, willingly or pass, HIV to somebody else. You could be criminally penalized for doing that. There are no other communicable, diseases that you can spread from person to person where you can be charged criminally for passing that to somebody else.

And so it was an outdated law. It was something that. Our community has been, asking to be changed for over 15 years. And because of the advocacy of groups like Annapolis Pride here in Maryland, it was passed this year. And so we're continuing to find the small wins in our community that continue to bring people together and show that we're not going anywhere and we're gonna continue to be protected in a state like Maryland.

The local level is not powerless. Folks, I repeat the local level is where a lot of times we can see really big waves happen. And so Joe, thank you so much for reminding us of the power that we do have as people and the spaces and places where we can make a difference.

Yeah. I guess a couple other things that we're always doing at the local level that I'll just plug 'cause I think it's important is at Annapolis Pride, we're doing a lot of work right now around the coalition and homelessness. It's a local coalition. We know that members of our community can be disproportionately affected by homelessness for a variety of reasons.

But quite often people don't have a family. That is, is supportive and they might kick them out if they are found out. And so we're working really hard with the county government and with other nonprofit partners to work on that. And then we're also part of a new multidisciplinary action team around hate crimes here in Anne Arundel County.

We know that hate crimes are under reported. And also hate bias incidents. They're two separate sort of things. And so our goal is to educate people about what it means to report those, what the process is, and then actually work on strategies to hopefully reduce the amount of hate crimes and hate incidents that are happening in our communities.

And there are ways to plug in, like I said no matter what your interest is with whatever you're passionate about, that really does create meaningful change in our communities. 

All the ways people can get involved will be linked in the show notes. So by no means do you need to remember everything that he shared, we linked in the show notes for you to check out ways to volunteer, ways to join the board and ways to see how you can get plugged into the Annapolis community.

Sounds good. 

Thank you so much for joining me today. As a closing question for all my guests, I am asking what is your commitment to yourself for 2025? 

Oh, I love that. I've been so bad about slowing down and actually doing some self-care for me. And I know that people say self-care and they're like, what does that actually look like for me?

It actually does look like saying no to some things. It looks like my newest hobby, which is Legos. I've built an unnecessary amount of Legos recently, but that is like a thing that makes me happy. It brings me joy and lets me turn off. All of the other things happening in the world. And so my biggest commitment this year is really showing up for myself, the way that I show up for the community.

'cause I show up in the community all the time and I usually put Joe last. And so I need better balance there and I recognize that. So that's my commitment to myself for this year. 

I love hearing that from you. Thank you so much.

Of course. Thanks for having me. 

 Thank you all so much for tuning into this episode. Make sure you tap the bell to stay in the loop with new episodes dropping every Friday. If this episode spoke to you, I'd be so grateful if you left a review. It helps others find the show and reminds me why I keep showing up. And if you wanna keep the conversation going, come hang with me on socials at Uni Wellness, llc.

We're healing out loud together.