Grandstanding
Here in Washington, D.C., for many years the annual gay pride parade route left Dupont Circle and traveled east on P Street to reach 14th Street. There, it would turn south, and finally end up on or near Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
Much of this area has strongly gentrified: The old tire warehouse is a Whole Foods, five tall new luxury condo buildings line P Street, much of 14th Street north of P is no longer occupied by pawn shops and Chinese takeaways but by luxury furniture stores.
But a few old-fashioned buildings exist, primarily on the southwest corner of P and 14th. Here, there are two- and three-story townhouses built in the 1870s which have managed to cling to existence. Their ground floors house fresh fish shops (where the fish is none too fresh), a "deli" that mostly serves liquor in 40-ounce cans, and several abandoned dry cleaners.
The upper floors are apartments, and cheap apartments at that. The floors sag, the paint contains lead, there's no A/C, the "central" heating haphazardly works in only a few rooms, and the bathrooms and kitchens are not for the obese or those who wish to turn around. But they are, as I say, dirt-cheap and rather spacious, and for young gay people wanting to live close to "the action" and not see 75 percent of their income go to housing, the apartments have a bohemian appeal.
Every year, a few gay men or women take the corner apartment. And every year, as the parade goes by, they hold a parade-watching party on the worryingly unstable fire escape. Beer flows, the boys show up in baby-doll t-shirts and too-tight shorts, the women smoke and comment how hot it is, and occasionally the dog that lives in the apartment comes outside to see what all the commotion is.