From a Mile High - Explore Denver’s Gay Side

You might not have noticed them at first glance — they weren’t holding hands or waiving rainbow flags — but there were gay people all around Denver as the Democratic National Convention began.

Allida Black, a lesbian from Arlington, Va., was among those who blended so well into the crowd. She sat Sunday morning along Denver’s picturesque 16th Street Mall for an interview with John Irvine, an ITN correspondent who was asking how boisterous Sen. Hillary Clinton’s supporters might become on the convention floor.

Black, a Clinton delegate who’s been asked to help keep her brethren from upstaging Sen. Barack Obama, said she expects little commotion despite the unusual precaution.

“My job is to make sure that the sense on the floor is respectful and not profane and not rude,” Black said. “I think you can make your voices heard in a way that is strong and passionate and clear. But you can’t guarantee that there won’t be uproar,” Irvine said as a helicopter whirled overhead and police officers rode motorcycles along the mall.

“No, I can’t,” she said. “But my job is to go to people and say, ‘Don’t go there with me. This is not about you. This is about Hillary. This about the people who voted for her.’ And we voted for her as a woman of character, a woman of strength, a woman of political convictions, a woman who can lead, a woman who does not pout.”

A few blocks away, atheists Jan Abbott and Debbie Lane were protesting the interfaith service DNC officials coordinated inside the Colorado Convention Center.

Read the rest at southernvoice.com.