Our Story

The Frederick Center exists to support and advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people and our families so we thrive, accepted and affirmed, in the broader Frederick community. The idea of The Frederick Center was initiated in January 2012 by Austin Beach, then a student at the local community college. He recognized the lack of resources for LGBTQ youth in central Maryland and decided to do something about it. He began the process of finding others that shared his vision. In just a few months he pulled in three others to lay the groundwork for starting an LGBTQ community center. Today, The Frederick Center host over 300 programs a year or about 6 programs every week focusing on the needs of LGBTQ people of all ages. We offer support programs for youth, adults, and caretakers of LGTBQ youth. We organize an annual Pride event each year which has grown to become the largest in the state of Maryland with over 15,000 attendees in 2019. We also help with case management with many other non-profits and government agencies providing sensitivity and awareness training to those organizations and providing real-time support networks for individuals in their programs.