Celebrating Pride at KID Museum

Join KID Museum’s Pride Celebration on June 4th! From 10:00am to 4:00pm, we will have exciting activities celebrating and recognizing the impact of LGBTQIA+ individuals and communities on history, invention, and creativity.

In addition, throughout the month of June, KID Museum will be putting the spotlight on LGBTQIA+ #HistoryMakers who have innovated, invented, and positively impacted our world.

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Thanks to the generous support of Montgomery County Public Schools, any MCPS student and their family can visit KID Museum and participate in a workshop for free through June 30, 2023 (Please Note: General Admission and Workshop Registration have timed entries and are subject to availability). If you are a MCPS student, please complete this form to get your free registration code.

June 4 Pride Celebration Programming

Mural Painting: LOVE Mural with Lisa Marie

10:00am - 4:00pm

Participate in a mural painting project with Lisa Marie, as she brings her LOVE Mural US Tour to Maryland and KID Museum! Families will have an opportunity to work side by side with Lisa Marie Thalhammer as she transforms the windows at KID Museum into a vibrant burst of color expressing diversity, collaboration, community and LOVE.

Lisa Marie Thalhammer is an artist, activist and creative director of Lisa Marie Studio. She is the creator of “The LOVE Mural”, a project that honors the beautiful diversity of our world and connects us through the power of public art. She believes that through love we can come together to solve our world’s most challenging issues, empowering us to listen and value one another.

Meet representatives from SMYAL (Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders) and learn about programs and resources to support LGBTQ youth and their families.

SMYAL advocates for LGBTQ youth so they can seize each day and prepare for the future. Through youth leadership, SMYAL creates opportunities for LGBTQ youth to build self-confidence, develop critical life skills, and engage their peers and community through service and advocacy.

Pride Family Resources Table

10:00am - 4:00pm

Maker Playground Online: Rainbow Flag

Try it now

Did you know June is Pride Month, when LGBTQ+ communities come together to celebrate the freedom to be themselves? The most iconic LGBTQIA+ symbol is the rainbow flag, but do you know how the rainbow flag came to represent Pride?

Come to our Maker Playground Online and learn more about the rainbow flag and try a DIY maker project inspired by it.

Celebrating LGBTQIA+ #HistoryMakers

Gilbert Baker (1951-2017)

Flagmaker & Activist

This Pride month, you'll probably see a lot of rainbows — including here at KID Museum — but do you know why the rainbow flag represents the LGBTQIA+ community? In 1978, a gay man named Gilbert Baker was looking to create a new symbol for the community, so he and his friends sat down to make a flag. They chose a rainbow to represent the diversity of the community and of human experiences in general, assigning different ideas — like serenity, nature, and healing — to the various colors they picked. While the exact colors of the flag have changed slightly since the 1978 design, Gilbert's vision of an inclusive, celebratory symbol has lived on, flying in Pride parades and gay rights marches worldwide for many decades.

Gilbert Baker (1951-2017)
Flagmaker & Activist

Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

Marine Biologist & Author

During World War II, the US government developed the first chemical pesticides, including one known as DDT. Farmers across the country started spraying it on their crops to deter insects, but Rachel Carson, a marine biologist working in Maryland, was concerned. She began to gather research suggesting these pesticides could harm both people and the environment. In 1962, she published Silent Spring, warning that these chemicals could lead to a world without birdsong if people weren't more careful. Rachel brought environmental issues into the public eye, but she couldn't bring herself. Nine years before publishing Silent Spring, Rachel met a woman named Dorothy Freeman. Rachel and Dorothy exchanged over 900 letters, but before Rachel died, they both burned hundreds of them, fearful that the romantic tones in their writing would ruin Rachel's reputation as a conservationist.

Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
Marine Biologist & Author

Sophie Collé

Furniture Designer

How much color is too much color? If you ask lesbian furniture designer Sophie Collé, she'll probably tell you that there's never enough. After being laid off from her interior design job in 2020, Sophie started making fun, exciting pieces of furniture for herself and her friends, using the new business to raise money for important social causes. She transformed her New York apartment into a real-life Barbie Dream House, mixing her handmade designs with unique vintage pieces that she remade to suit her style. Now, Sophie has her own design studio, where she sells her playful, squiggly creations so that others can enjoy all the fun of handmade furniture. As she puts it, "I design to make people smile."

Sophie Collé
Furniture Designer

Keith Haring (1958-1990)

Artist & Activist

"Art is for everybody." That was Keith Haring's motto — and he worked to share it, creating murals, flyers, and chalk art throughout New York City. While he loved making art, he also had messages to send. Keith coined the famous anti-drug slogan "Crack is Wack" in one of his murals, and he produced hundreds of artworks about the AIDS epidemic and homophobic discrimination. His eye-catching cartoonish style was incredibly popular with the public, and he quickly drew the attention of collectors and gallerists who wanted to sell his work for huge amounts of money. But Keith didn't care about the money: he cared about the art and other people, often donating most of his profits to children's charities. He even opened his own Pop Shop to sell his art in more affordable forms like t-shirts. Before he died, he set up the Keith Haring Foundation to fund AIDS research and help children in need.

Keith Haring (1958-1990)
Artist & Activist

Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) & Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002)

Drag Queens & Activists

Do you know why we celebrate Pride Month in June? When it was still illegal to be gay, the LGBTQIA+ community in New York City often gathered at a bar called Stonewall, celebrating themselves in one of the rare places that allowed them to exist openly. In June of 1969, the police raided the bar, setting off a series of confrontations between themselves and the gay community that grew into the larger battle for LGBTQIA+ rights. At the forefront of this activism were Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, a pair of drag queens who refused to fit in. Both Sylvia and Marsha were passionate public speakers, creative performers, and prominent activists who founded one of the first networks for transgender people, providing housing and support for homeless members of the community. Today, Sylvia and Marsha's revolutionary legacy lives on through the millions of LGBTQIA+ Americans who are living happy, fulfilling lives in a more accepting society.

Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) and Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002)
Drag Queens & Activists

Kellyn Lacour-Conant

Restoration Ecologist

Meet Kellyn LaCour-Conant, a two-spirit restoration ecologist using Indigenous methods of stewardship to heal the environment in the Louisiana wetlands. Their work restores native vegetation and oyster reefs that were affected by Deepwater Horizon, the largest oil spill in the U.S., but they also work with local Indigenous communities to make sure the restored environment will be cared for long-term.

Kellyn Lacour-Conant
Restoration Ecologist

Lilian Martinez

Executive Director & CEO of oSTEM

Out in STEM — also known as oSTEM — is one of the world's largest organizations for LGBTQIA+ people in STEM, with hundreds of chapters both abroad and in the United States. At the forefront of their work is Executive Director and CEO Lilian Martinez, a queer chemical engineer-turned-activist. Lilian's own experiences as a marginalized person in a STEM field inspired her to pave the way for other queer scientists, and since joining oSTEM, she has instituted multiple scholarship programs and aid funds to alleviate economic barriers for LGBTQIA+ students entering STEM fields.

Lilian Martinez
Executive Director & CEO, oSTEM

Svante Pääbo

Nobel Laureate Geneticist

What made Neanderthals so different from humans? Svante Pääbo, one of the founders of paleogenetics, might just have the answer. In 2022, Svante was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for sequencing the first Neanderthal genome. The year before, he used his knowledge of evolutionary genetics to spark a breakthrough in COVID-19 research, determining that cetain variants of DNA can make the disease more or less dangerous to different populations. Svante wrote about his journey with Neanderthal DNA and human evolution in a 2014 memoir, where he also disclosed that he is bisexual. He currently lives in Sweden with his wife and children.

Svante Pääbo
Nobel Laureate Geneticist

Mercury Stardust

DIY Educator & Activist

Mercury Stardust, better known as the Trans Handy Ma'am, is a popular DIY and home repair TikTok creator combining her expertise in home maintenance with her dedication to trans activism. She embraces DIY because it allows everyone to take control of their own lives. She shares clear, playful instructions on her platforms to spread the message that anyone can start making their home their own. Mercury also uses her platform to advocate for her community. As a proud trans woman, she hopes to inspire young LGBTQIA+ makers to "live their truth boldly," and to educate allies on how to support their LGBTQIA+ family, friends, and neighbors.

Mercury Stardust
DIY Educator & Activist

Lisa Marie Thalhammer

Artist & Activist

Lisa Marie Thalhammer is an award-winning pansexual artist and LGBTQIA+ activist whose bright, colorful murals are spreading positivity around the country — including here at KID Museum! The LOVE Mural Project takes inspiration from the classic rainbow pride flag to celebrate diversity and promote acceptance, harmony, and, of course, love. Born and raised in Missouri, Lisa Marie now lives in Washington, D.C., where she has painted over a dozen murals.

Lisa Marie Thalhammer
Artist & Activist

Alan Turing, OBE, FRS (1912-1954)

Mathematician

Can a computer think? Alan Turing, a pioneering mathematician and expert code-breaker, first devised a way to answer this question in 1950, shortly after his revolutionary ideas about the limits of human computation sparked the birth of computer science as we know it. He proposed a test — the Turing test — which determines whether a computer is capable of original thought by asking it the same questions you might ask a human. These big questions are still being asked today, with many people wondering whether ChatGPT and similar programs have finally beaten the Turing test. Despite Alan's contributions to science and his service as a codebreaker for the British army, in 1952 he was sentenced to a medical procedure designed to alter his sexuality. He lost his job and was barred from visiting the United States, where it was also still illegal to be gay. The British government formally pardoned Alan in 2014, sixty years after his death.

Alan Turing, OBE, FRS (1912-1954)
Mathematician

Lil Nas X (Montero Lamar Hill)

Musician

What does a country music star look like? Montero Hill, better known by his stage name, Lil Nas X, was only 20 years old when his song "Old Town Road" skyrocketed to the top of the charts. When some country fans protested that the song was rap, and not country, country music legend Billy Ray Cyrus produced a remix that solidified Lil Nas X's status as an artist to watch. "Old Town Road" stayed the #1 song in the country for 19 weeks, making it the longest-running chart topper in music history. During that time, Lil Nas X came out as gay, and began to publicly embrace his sexuality, putting on bold, unapologetically queer performances every time he took to the stage. His debut album, MONTERO, delved deeper into his life as a Black gay man growing up in the south.

Lil Nas X
Musician

Access for Every Maker

KID Museum is dedicated to expanding access to STEM and maker learning opportunities for all by providing free and reduced-cost opportunities to participate in our programming.

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