UNCjigga
Lifer
Stayed with a friend from school over on 17th and T near Dupont Circle in DC this weekend (part of me exercising my dual citizenship and trying to party up on both national holidays.) I came down with another friend from school, and we had been warned before that this was the gay part of town.
At first it didn't really faze me at all. Lots of guys holding hands, good-looking, well-dressed men. Lots of rainbow stickers in local businesses--restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, and yes, even the hardware store (Tim Allen sound, no wait its gay!) There's a club called Chaos that has Drag Bingo (bingo hosted by drag queens) that's actually popular with the gay/straight/who cares crowd. We went to a place called Brickskeller (800 beers!!! My Mecca!!!) that was right next to a gay bar and a gay church (seriously the church was draped in rainbow.)
But around the 3rd day it started to bother me. I guess I started to get concerned over what people thought of us...three well-dressed guys walking around in the gay part of town. For whatever reason there were a lot more gay men than women here (straight women like to live here because they feel safe?) and so sometimes we'd catch some girls giving us a funny look (were they thinking three's a crowd?)
I guess before I didn't see the appeal of having a gay neighborhood vs. regular neighborhood--it just sounds a lot like segregation to me (nevermind that the property values are higher, crime is lower, etc.) But in those few days I realized that guys getting looked at funny all the time will feel a whole lot better in a neighborhood where they don't have to worry about sticking out. Almost made me rethink my stance on ethnic neighborhoods too--sort of like a necessary evil I guess and good for the community that lives there.
At first it didn't really faze me at all. Lots of guys holding hands, good-looking, well-dressed men. Lots of rainbow stickers in local businesses--restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, and yes, even the hardware store (Tim Allen sound, no wait its gay!) There's a club called Chaos that has Drag Bingo (bingo hosted by drag queens) that's actually popular with the gay/straight/who cares crowd. We went to a place called Brickskeller (800 beers!!! My Mecca!!!) that was right next to a gay bar and a gay church (seriously the church was draped in rainbow.)
But around the 3rd day it started to bother me. I guess I started to get concerned over what people thought of us...three well-dressed guys walking around in the gay part of town. For whatever reason there were a lot more gay men than women here (straight women like to live here because they feel safe?) and so sometimes we'd catch some girls giving us a funny look (were they thinking three's a crowd?)
I guess before I didn't see the appeal of having a gay neighborhood vs. regular neighborhood--it just sounds a lot like segregation to me (nevermind that the property values are higher, crime is lower, etc.) But in those few days I realized that guys getting looked at funny all the time will feel a whole lot better in a neighborhood where they don't have to worry about sticking out. Almost made me rethink my stance on ethnic neighborhoods too--sort of like a necessary evil I guess and good for the community that lives there.
