BALTIMORE REALLY knows how to make you feel good about being gay. And you could feel the pride all around.
During the city's gay-pride weekend festivities June 16-17, Fragrance, the cross-dressing host of the block party on Greene and Lexington streets, stepped on stage - in such neon makeup and bright plumes, he almost appeared radioactive - and screamed, "Hey Baltimore ... we've got to love each other!"
To him, it didn't matter if you were gay, straight, black, white, old, young; if you were having a good time, you were welcome to the party.
That was the general mood. It wasn't so much about the latest eye-opening, yet depressing, AIDS stats. It wasn't about homophobia, "Queer As Folk," civil rights or whether President Bush's AIDS policy director, Scott Evertz, holds only a token position in Washington.
It was more about feeling good. And celebrating you.
This is my first time celebrating me in Baltimore. The experience was ingratiating. Seeing couples holding hands and relaxing at Druid Hill Park, showing public affection, embracing each other - and their lifestyles - was remarkable. Sometimes it literally stopped traffic.
Passers-by stopped to listen to the live entertainment at the block party of about 2,500 revelers outside Club Buns, to eat an Italian sausage sub or a snowball or maybe just watch, amazed, at how carefree everyone seemed. They know it's not every day cross-dressers mount a stage in cosmic-pink drag in the heart of downtown Baltimore.
And at the block party on Franklin and Park streets the day before, the curious strolling down the street - some with children - couldn't help but stop and dance to the infectious thumping of house music in the parking lot.
It was all about feeling good.
"Everybody came out to get along and have fun, and they did," said Robert Young of Baltimore. "It was such a thrill to just be free and feel uninhibited."
He got it.
Whereas gay-pride events in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Washington celebrate the buff and the beautiful, it's pretty much a given that you go to those places to either be eye candy or a spectator. In those cities, a look is celebrated, not a feeling. And the better and more buff you look, the better your chances of being celebrated.
It's a horrific sight - think ants on a piece of taffy along a sidewalk during summer.
The sense of community is lost. Actually, there is no sense of community. It's just thousands of gay people crammed into cities to gawk and strike poses for the cameras. It's so cosmetic.
If gay prides are meant to celebrate being a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, finding a sense of comfort about your identity by being surrounded by a community of bonding and a sense of importance, then the country can learn a lot from Charm City.
Here, you don't need muscles so hard you might be mistaken for a rowhouse. (Those who go to such great lengths to become lookers have serious esteem problems.) You don't need to go on shopping sprees just to be in tune with the latest trends. (It seems Baltimore never had a real fashion sense.) You don't need a ton of money.
All you need is to want to feel important, to be part of a community that's home-grown, not ushered in en masse from every corner of the country.
The bigger cities are clueless in this regard. Baltimore has gotten it down to a science. Bigger isn't always better.
When I saw the floats and people marching along Charles Street in the parade, it was inspiring. The observers were especially memorable. There were happy-go-lucky mothers, proud fathers, sons, daughters, the physically challenged. There were so many folks from so many backgrounds, it really didn't feel like gay pride. It was more like people pride. It was a celebration of community.
And when I saw Marva Laws receive her award for her work raising money for city pediatric AIDS patients, it was just as inspiring (even though Fragrance forgot to bring the award on stage with her).
What I couldn't understand was why a coordinator went on stage at the block party and declared that next year Baltimore will have a gay-pride event similar to those in New York, Los Angeles and Washington. Is he nuts?
David M. Graves is an editor at The Sun.
