When Phillip Alexander Downie was a teenager in Gaithersburg, he had few safe places to express and explore his queer identity.
A younger generation of queer Montgomery County youth will have more options, thanks to the opening of the MoCo Pride Center in downtown Bethesda last month.
“I wanted to galvanize all the resources we have in this county to create a central safe space for our community,” said Downie, since 2018 CEO of the center, which didn’t previously have a headquarters.
Even without a brick-and-mortar headquarters, Downie and his team offered programming that included support groups, HIV testing, drag shows and vendor markets. But Downie knew the organization’s work couldn’t expand without a home base.
The MoCo Pride Center, tucked into the county’s Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center, opened as the Trump administration tries to roll back protections for queer people, and in the wake of a Supreme Court case that originated in Montgomery County about how schools handle LGBTQIA+-themed books. The court ruled in Mahmoud v. Taylor in favor of parents who didn’t want their children exposed to the books.
The Trump administration has also issued, among other executive orders targeting transgender people, one that asserts the federal government’s recognition of only “two unchangeable sexes.” Other orders have banned trans people from serving in the military and limited access to gender-affirming health care. Trump has also criticized the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.
In addition to these challenges, queer people in Montgomery County are also grappling with local pressures, related and unrelated to their queerness.
“It is not always an affordable county for people to live in, and that creates just a lot of difficulty in terms of people’s abilities to have other options,” said Lee Blinder, the founder of Trans Maryland, an organization that supports the transgender community.
Now based in Baltimore, Blinder grew up in Montgomery County, and like Downie, struggled to find welcoming LGBTQIA+ spaces growing up.
“We also still have a great amount of need,” Blinder said.
But Montgomery County, and Maryland in general, is also attracting queer people who feel safer here.
Downie said he has spoken to visitors of the center who have moved to the county recently because of state policies that protect gender-affirming health care and the progressive attitudes of elected officials.
The center, Downie said, is a bulwark against increasingly hostile rhetoric and policies directed against queer people.
“Folks are really looking to not only be in community, but are actively dispelling this myth and narrative that anyone who isn’t like a cisgender, old, rich white landowning male is not of value,” Downie said.
Building a safe space
There’s precedent regionally for LGBTQIA+ resource centers: the Pride Center of Maryland in Baltimore, Frederick Center and the D.C. LGBTQ+ Community Center.
To build Montgomery County’s center, government funding was key.
In 2024, after Downie and other local LGBTQIA+ advocates urged county officials to help fund their programming, County Executive Marc Elrich proposed $500,000 to fund the center as well. It was approved by the County Council that same year.
It was also a recommendation of a county Office of Legislative Oversight report, which found stark disparities in health care access, and specifically gender-affirming care, for trans county residents.
“We have some terrific partners here in Montgomery County. Unfortunately, their funding is jeopardized at the federal level,” said County Council President Kate Stewart, who has been an advocate for LGBTQIA+ services. “We’re also seeing other federal and state funding specifically for LGBTQIA+ therapists and counselors being cut.”
Yoga and support groups
The MoCo Pride Center’s offers programs that address all aspects of its clientele’s well-being. Its schedule includes yoga and CrossFit classes, drag story hours and support groups for substance abuse recovery.
“A lot of our community members are gig workers, or work nights and weekends, or work three or four or five jobs, just to ensure that they can have enough money for the basic necessities,” Downie said.
“Sometimes they’re not treating their health as a basic necessity, or their mental health or their spiritual health,” he continued, “so we work with all of these different organizations to bring folks together to provide all of these needs.”
Trans Maryland, known for its legal name change assistance program, will do drop-in clinics at the center for members of the trans community and their families.
A focal point of the center is the Kason Mordechai Smith Diverse Books Library & LGBTQIA+ Archive, named for a Black trans man and Montgomery County resident who died in 2017 at age 24. Kind Cotton, a local apparel business, donated the majority of the books, which include titles for adults and children.
“It’s critical, not only for every child to feel seen, but also for children to see others who are unlike them, and as opposed to othering them, celebrating our differences and appreciating our differences,” said Kaitlin Johnstone, the founder and co-owner of Kind Cotton.
Johnstone and her husband were inspired by Toms, a company that donates a pair of shoes for every pair of shoes purchased. Kind Cotton donates a book for every purchase made online.
As a former kindergarten teacher in Florida, Johnstone was disturbed by the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. As a Montgomery County resident, challenges to books celebrating diversity in the school system inspired her partnership with the Pride Center.
Another partner of the center is Silver Spring United Methodist Church, which will be providing snacks. The Rev. Will Ed Green, the church’s senior pastor, said the church has long welcomed LGBTQIA+ parishioners and has been working to help prevent LGBTQIA+ people from eviction.
“We never have enough money to help prevent eviction,” Green said, noting a 23% increase in calls in the last four months from people who feared losing their homes. “A large portion of them are LGBTQ+ or have an LGBTQ+ family member.”
Beyond Bethesda
Downie sees the Bethesda location as a starting point and recognizes that it won’t reach a large portion of the county. His mission includes opening additional centers in the Silver Spring, Wheaton and Upcounty areas, as well as a mobile pride unit.
In the meantime, Downie will work with partner organizations like Silver Spring United Methodist Church and Poolesville Pride, which supports the LGBTQIA+ community in the Upcounty.
“Social isolation is a huge problem here. We are kind of out in the boonies. The goal was to get queer people to be able to connect with each other,” said Sam Cooper, founder of Poolesville Pride. “We’re really focusing on creating spaces that feel fun, affirming, welcoming and inclusive.”
Sarah Paksima, a Poolesville Pride leader and member of the town commission, got involved with the center because she has children who are LGBTQIA+. She said queer residents living in more rural areas have needs that are in some ways different from those living elsewhere in the county.
“For 15,000 people, there are three doctors within a 15-mile radius,” Paksima said. “Public transportation is also not available out here; they need help getting to the doctor.”
Blinder said that while they are thrilled to have the new center, elected officials need to support queer and trans people across the county. They pointed to the lack of trans health care providers in the county, as well as housing and transportation issues that affect marginalized communities.
“We have sanctuary protections without sanctuary dollars,” Blinder said.
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