In a way, Baltimore Pride comes full circle this weekend.

Saturday’s parade — one element of the city’s annual celebration of its SGL (same-gender-loving)/LGBTQ communities — will take a route that will look to the festival’s future (and its new farther-north home) while honoring its history, said Mimi Demissew, co-chair of the Pride Committee.

“The parade is going to start in Mount Vernon and then end in Charles North,” said Demissew, who is also a co-executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland, the nonprofit organization that produces the festival. “We did that intentionally to give a nod to our old neighborhood and to say, ‘Welcome to our new neighborhood.’?”

The Pride Parade and Block Party will expand the event’s footprint.

The Saturday festivities have taken place in Mount Vernon for the past several years, but the bulk of the day’s events are moving to the Charles North, Old Goucher and Station North neighborhoods this year.

(The weekend’s festival, held on Sunday, will once again occur at Druid Hill Park from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.)

Inclusion is a driving force within GLCCB today, Demissew said. It is the organization’s duty to have its programs and efforts reflect the many different types of people GLCCB aims to help, she said.

“The GLCCB is here to serve,” Demissew said.

“It’s a community center. We really want to walk the talk.”

Besides the location’s growth, here are some other new things to know about Pride.

The theme is “Pride Unleashed.” “It’s really to be completely unapologetic of who you are,” Demissew said of the theme’s meaning. GLCCB asked for any and all suggestions to help choose this year’s Pride theme. “Unleashed” came from young members of the local LGBTQ community, Demissew said. .

Young and old members of the community will have their own areas. “Youth Pride” (4:30 p.m.-8 p.m. Saturday) will take place at a large lot near the intersection of Charles and 22nd streets, Demissew said, with youth-run and youth-led programming. The area will feature performances from young, local artists, along with booths providing information geared toward ages 14-22, she said. There’ll even be a water-gun fight.

“Elder Pride,” occurring throughout Sunday’s festival, will look to honor older members of the community, Demissew said. A shuttle known as the “Elder Express” will provide free rides from Chase Brexton Health Care in Mount Vernon to Druid Hill Park every couple of hours. (See the schedule at baltimorepride.org.)

Pride will also accommodate the deaf community more this year, Demissew said, by reserving seats closer to the stages for the hearing impaired “so they’ll be able to see the interpreters a lot closer,” she said. “We’re trying to increase accessibility.”

Finally, it wouldn’t be a Pride party without live music. GLCCB once again took suggestions, this time for entertainers, and created a poll where people could vote on the acts the organization should pursue. This year’s Block Party headliner is Big Freedia (9 p.m. Saturday), the “Queen Diva” of the New Orleans strain of dance music known as bounce.

wesley.case@baltsun.com

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