Promoting Understanding : Sunset Street Fair Accents Families, AIDS Education

Isaac Gomez, his pregnant wife and his children strolled Sunday past the table topped with free condoms and the leather-clad businessman hawking “macho teddy bears,” heading straight to the carrousel.

“This is very nice. They have many activities,” Gomez, 27, said of the three-day Sunset Junction Street Fair, which features ethnic foods, artisan works, a petting zoo, entertainment and a strong AIDS education message.

“We have something for everybody,” fair coordinator Joyce Azelton said of the Silver Lake event aimed at promoting understanding between homosexuals and others.

Despite cool weather and an overcast sky, organizers expect about 300,000 people to attend the festival, which runs through today, and involves groups ranging “from senior citizens to gang members,” according to Azelton.

Visitors munching on tamales, Thai food and churros included Latinos, Anglos, Asians and blacks--gay and straight, singles and families--who live in the communities of Silver Lake, Echo Park and Los Feliz.

Gangs Call Truce

Four gangs in the area called a truce during the festival, and some gang members volunteered to help with crowd control, Azelton said.

For visitors like Marcella Pineda, 21, the fair is “something for us (the gay community.)” Looking over a board filled with buttons, she stopped at one that read: “Maricon. Y QUE? “ (Gay. SO WHAT?) “I should get that for my friend. But he won’t admit it.”

Canceled last year because organizers were unable to pay liability insurance premiums, the fair--the seventh in the last eight years--made a comeback this weekend with a scaled-down version: 85 booths instead of 140, a greater number of booths featuring AIDS-related materials and more rides and live animals to amuse children.

Local gay bars pitched in about $12,000 to help pay the $15,000 insurance tab.

Although the fair is founded and organized by a predominantly gay group, the Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance, it was not just the gay community that missed the event when it was canceled last year.

“People were asking, ‘Why aren’t we having our fair?’ Not a gay fair, but our fair,” said Maryanne Hayashi, director of the Central City Action Committee, a youth group in Echo Park.

‘So Many Families’

“If you look around, there are so many families,” Hayashi said. “It has done nothing but cement the community together.”

The relaxed mingling at the fair, Azelton said, is bound to improve relations between gays and their neighbors, especially in the wake of what some gay activists see as an increase in violence against homosexuals in Silver Lake.

For street vendors, it also proved to be profitable.

Horst Altheimer, wearing leather pants and suspenders made of chains, was selling some teddy bears from his store, Obsessions. The bears, in the $8-to-$20 range, were dressed in leather undergarments.

“The macho teddy bears sell well--boys and girls--so no one could complain,” Altheimer said. “Everybody wants a little souvenir.”