By Martin Scarborough
In celebration of Pride Month, Downtown Frederick Partnership is delighted to feature Martin Scarborough, Program Director at The Frederick Center, in this month’s edition of Voices of Downtown Frederick. Martin reflects on the incredible growth of Frederick Pride, from a small, hopeful gathering to one of the city’s most vibrant festivals. With honesty and heart, he shares the personal and collective journey of the LGBTQ+ community in Downtown Frederick—highlighting how visibility, resilience and love have shaped a stronger, more inclusive place for all.
In twelfth grade, my mother took me to a big picnic at Ballenger Creek Park. The sky was clear, the sun was hot, and it was the perfect day for party games. A big chalkboard covered in colorful lettering set the schedule for the day: egg tosses, cornhole, kickball, a pie-eating contest, and capture the flag.
If it weren’t for the fistful of rainbow flags tucked around the pavilion, you would never have known that this was Frederick’s first Pride celebration.
Thirteen years later, Pride is the largest festival in Frederick City and spans most of Carroll Creek Park. It’s surreal to think that there was a time when our community felt afraid to be public and visible in downtown Frederick—even more surreal when you realize that was only a decade ago. The first Frederick Pride on Carroll Creek in 2015 came after months of divisive debate over whether Downtown Frederick would be safe for our community to gather. Would there be protests? Would people stay home, fearing they would be outed if they attended? Would people lose their families, friends, or jobs over spending one day celebrating themselves and the people they love? Every LGBTQ+ person has had moments in their lives where they feared that being true to themselves meant being rejected and scorned by the people they loved. Would the visibility of a downtown Frederick Pride force people to risk that choice?
We know now, in hindsight, that these fears were unfounded. Bringing Frederick Pride to Downtown Frederick brought the festival to a place where it could flourish. But getting here was a struggle—it took risk, courage, and boldness to choose visibility over the safety of obscurity.
Being LGBTQ+ means living in a constant state of risk assessment. There are days when I wake up and wonder whether it’s safe to be honest about myself and my identity. I am lucky: I am beloved by my family, my friends, my community, and my faith. Within my own social sphere, there are very few situations in which I worry about a hostile reaction to my existence.
But I live in a world where violence against my community is pervasive. I work with clients who are younger than me and have been beaten for being gay or have had friends taken away to be psychologically tortured at conversion therapy camps. I live under a federal government that has threatened to strip me of my healthcare and my passport for the crime of existing as a transgender person. I’ve had slurs and threats and insults hurled at me by men and women who see my existence and my happiness as a threat to their worldview. There are people who fantasize about our deaths.
That’s why we are having Frederick’s first-ever Pride Parade on Friday, June 27th. As much as Pride is a celebration of our community and its history, it is also a radical act of defiance. Since the launch of the modern gay rights movement in the ’60s, parades have been high-profile demonstrations of solidarity and support for our community, even when institutions have attempted to silence us with force and fear. On June 27th, over 50 local organizations will march through Downtown Frederick to show that solidarity: some are LGBTQ+ led, some are led by allies, but all understand that our Downtown Frederick community is made brighter and more vibrant when it welcomes our LGBTQ+ family.
In the face of loud and looming threats that want us to hide and cower, to return to our closets and pretend we never existed, the parade is a visible show that we are here, we exist, and our Frederick community loves us, cherishes us, and wants to see us thrive.
Learn more about The Frederick Center: thefrederickcenter.org
Martin Scarborough is a returning member of the Frederick County community. Originally from Myersville, Martin graduated from Middletown High School in 2013 and later from Hood College in 2017 with a double major in Global Studies and Spanish. For the last 6 years, Martin has lived abroad in Baltimore City, where he worked in fundraising and development for programs that supported youth education and enrichment, immigration advocacy, and racial justice. He is excited to bring his experience to the Frederick Center, where he can use his talents to support fellow members of the queer community.
