Black queer folks in New York tend to think they have a monopoly on "the scene" North of Atlanta on the East Coast. And there is lots of fun to be had in NYC for a Black gay man. Secrets, Splash, G, etc. etc. But NYC isn't the only place on the East Coast that has fun shit to offer in the way of drinking, revelry, and perhaps debauchery. On a recent trip to the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia), a group of friends and I were running late. We were trying to make it to a spot in DC but it definitely wasn't going to happen by 2 am. We decided, instead, to stop off in Baltimore. After misleading instructions directed us to a 18+ Straight club with NO ALCOHOL, the night started to look like a bust. We decided to look up some other places and, at the stroke of midnight, happened upon Baltimore's gay section.
The two clubs we went to that night were a vastly different experience from NYC. People weren't as scandalous, but perhaps they were a bit queer-er. What do I mean when I say that? Well, gay men in NYC have convinced themselves that scandal equals freedom. In Baltimore, below the Mason-Dixon line, I felt much more comfortable in a mixed male/female, Black/white/Latino environment than I could ever possibly feel in NYC. See, NYC is plagued by what I like to term gay apartheid. Chelsea and the Village might appear safe spaces for all queer bodies, but I guarantee you after being followed in sex shops, given funny looks on the sidewalks, mistreated by bartenders, etc. it is no environment that readily welcomes non-white, non-male gay bodies. Baltimore's scene is, I'm sure, no paradise. But from my short time there, the people, the bartenders, and the bouncers recognized that they were all marginal simply by having their bodies in the "gay" part of the city.
Baltimore may not be the best GAY city, but it beats NYC in QUEERNESS.
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