"CHICAGO'S SCENE CERTAINLY can seem that way when compared to other cities," says DJ Cameron. Raised in Chicago, Cameron has been in the DJ game for 16 years, starting out in Chicago and moving on to DC and now New York.

"In New York, my Sunday night at Langston's is more integrated. But even still, I have a female friend sitting here with me right now who has told me that there can be 'too many men' at Langston's.

"The music is universal, we know that. It's really very strange, but there it is."

In fact, the segregation in the House scene in Chicago, at least when it comes to gay and straight, may be just an extreme example of a national phenomenon. Almost unknown to even some die-hard Househeads, there's a national circuit of black gay nights across the Midwest and the East Coast but generally falling along a Chicago-Miami-DC-New York axis.

Baltimore's Karizma made his name in this scene (most of those years as the weekly resident at The Prop House) before breaking through on an international level. One of today's top DJs on the black gay circuit is likewise almost unknown among many Househeads - frequent Prop House guest DJ Sedrick.

"Sedrick is a people's DJ," Bernard from the Rails says. "He plays what you want to hear. More than that, he has an uncanny ability to know what you want to hear.

"But you have to remember: Sedrick and today's DJs are playing for a crowd that may have never heard a House Music song in their life. That's the reality of where we are today."

Sedrick is also, in Bernard's words, "the only DJ in the country that can hold down Black Pride weekend in a town all by himself." A DJ with a foot in both of Chicago's fractured House communities once told me that Sedrick was "like Frankie Knuckles to the Vogue Ball kids." Bernard doesn't exactly agree. "I don't think he's a Ball DJ as much as he is a people's DJ. He can see a woman in the corner and eye her over and know what song she came out to hear. That's an important skill and why he always has a packed floor."

AND THAT BRINGS US to perhaps the most vibrant aspect of Chicago's black gay scene - Vogue Balls. The Ball scene is far beyond the scope of this article - so intrinsic to House Music and the black gay experience that it deserves a few thousand words on its own.

Many of the top DJs in the black gay scene play balls as well as in traditional clubs, including Craig Loftis, Stoney, and Sedrick (though Cameron laughs, "The people from the Ball scene here have said I play too straight for them!") There's some crossover in the crowd too, though not as much as one would think.

"It's not the same crowd but we do have them," Bernard says. "Last week, for instance, I had Stoney playing, and I told him that to play for them if he spotted any ball kids in the room."

And that's it - right there, that's the point of this all. The Ball kids may not be regulars, but they're welcomed home at the Prop House on Fridays, too. This kind of attitude, this kind of love among strangers who may have nothing to say to each other while standing in line but share their heart on the dancefloor is why I fell in love with this music. It's why I believe that some sort of salvation for the House scene is out there right now, in the energy of the clubs and balls and events where all are welcome, provided we can, thirty years into this thing called House Music, still leave our baggage at the door.