Gone is the closeted, often tolerant Washgton; the pal is now perhaps the gayt place the natn.
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THE GAYT PLACE AMERI?
* is jeremy peters gay *
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTVioTen percent of adults the District of Columbia intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr, nearly three tim the natnal average. 15, 2013WASHINGTON — My earlit sense of what meant to be gay the natn’s pal me more than a ago when I was a summer tern.
But the msage was as clear as was unsettlg for a 20-year-old stgglg wh his own sexual inty: There were plenty of gay people Washgton, even at the hight levels of ernment. When the District of Columbia is pared wh the 50 stat, has the hight percentage of adults who intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or transgenr, acrdg to Gallup.
The natnal average is jt unr 1 of my first observatns about my new cy was the throngs of gay men I would see over the urse of a typil day all over town — walkg their dogs my neighborhood before work, ridg the Metro, workg the halls of Congrs. “There’s an openly gay prence that mak you thk you’re the Castro or Wt Hollywood, and wasn’t always the se, ” Robert Raben, an assistant attorney general durg the Clton admistratn who was one of several openly gay people appoted by Print Clton, told me. Vansa Vick for The New York TimSuch ubiquy isn’t jt an abundance of gay bars, though there are at least six wh walkg distance of my hoe the Logan Circle neighborhood of Northwt Washgton.
NEW YORK TIM LLS D.C. ‘THE GAYT PLACE AMERI.’ IS ?
The first openly gay printial ndidate to mount a major mpaign has attracted an equally pneerg prs rps. * is jeremy peters gay *
On the days I make the 20-mute walk om home to my office near the Whe Hoe, I will pass one example after another of this cy’s thrivg gay enomy: a Mchell Gold & Bob Williams furnure store; a clothg retailer whose wdow displays regularly feature bare-torso, well-endowed mannequs nothg but ty briefs; three CrossF gyms; the offic of two gay newspapers, The Washgton Bla and Metro Weekly (most ci nnot even sta one); a bathhoe; and the natnal headquarters for the Human Rights walkg through the Dupont Circle neighborhood the other night would have found themselv fightg for siwalk space wh the hundreds of spectators — many of them straight — who had gathered to watch the 17th Street High Heel Race, an annual sprt for drag queens who tear down the block heels.
Many gays and lbians flch at the word homosexual. * is jeremy peters gay *
And when I tried to make plans a few weekends ago, I found most of my iends were booked solid bee they were attendg one of two huge gay-themed events: the Human Rights Campaign annual black-tie dner, featurg Jennifer Lopez as the ma event; or the Miss Adams Man drag pageant, which is such a large productn tak over the Washgton our feral district is measured agast other ci wh large gay populatns, a parison that experts say is better than parg to stat, still ranks at the top of the list. The numbers pture only those who acknowledge beg a same-sex gay man or lbian I spoke to for this article had a horror story about what was like workg the closet, fearg they would be found out. It was only durg the Clton years that the Whe Hoe fally end the s-long practice of nyg secury clearance to people known to be gay or lbian.