Free A House Is Not a Home by James Earl Hardy Page A

prized stuffed animal collection (when Destiny turned two, the lion, tiger, and bear weren’t cute anymore, and she was afraid to step into his apartment). One of the few items he kept were the tusks from an elephant, Destiny’s favorite animal.
    â€œWhy not have the party at your place?” Mitchell remarked. “Now that your zoo has officially closed, you’ve got lots more room for kids to run and roam around in.”
    Gene’s eyes narrowed. “Now, you know I’ll do any thing for my Baby—but I won’t do that . I’d have to make every parent sign a contract stipulating that they’ll pay for any damage done by their innocent little rug rats.”
    â€œLike you wouldn’t want to go on Judge Judy ?” She’s replaced Roseanne as the TV “character” Gene admires most.
    Gene handed Mitchell his juice. “You know I would. But taking one of my Baby’s friends to court? I couldn’t put her through that; she’d probably lose a friend, and she’d lose respect for me.” Gene caressed the small locket hanging on a gold chain around his neck; it has a pic of Destiny inside (she has an identical one with his photo). As Gene paid the bartender, Mitchell shook his head in amazement: he never thought he’d see the day when Gene would care so much about how another person viewed him. Gene can still be a firecracker, but when it comes to Destiny, he’s nothing but Jell-O.
    The bartender gave Gene his change; Gene left a few dollars as a tip. Then he and Mitchell made their way through the sea of brothers (not surprisingly, Gene knew many of them) to the booth.
    There they found Babyface and B.D. hugged up and rubbing noses as B.D. played with Babyface’s locks, which are now past his waist. You’d think they were fourteen, not forty, the way they carry on. They’ll be celebrating ten years as a “married” couple this coming Valentine’s Day—and there aren’t many straight couples who can say that. And as their love has grown, so have their careers. In 1998, Babyface left the district attorney’s office, sick of trying to make cases against corrupt and abusive police officers and coming up against not only the blue wall of silence but the indifference of his own colleagues. So, with two other former New York DA’s, Gerardo Gomez and Dyanna Joyce, he opened a civil practice, specializing in police brutality and race/gender/sexual-orientation discrimination cases. One of their first: a suit alleging that, with the tacit support of the Board of Education, law enforcement was allowed to take Black and Latino male students out of high schools to appear in police lineups. Within a month, a settlement was reached: $7 million, to be split between twenty-nine families. Since then, they’ve literally given Johnnie Cochran and his New York City firm a run for their money, racking up an additional $35 million.
    While his man worked that legalese, B.D. was steppin’ up a storm onstage. He’s had stints in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Rent, The Lion King , and Fosse , but it was his off-Broadway show, Fagnificent , a hilarious riff on sissydom, that put him on the Who’s Who in Theater map. Featuring his multiethnic, multigender, multiracial dance troupe, Imani, the show cleaned up at the box office and during awards season (three Obies, two Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards, and, when it moved to Broadway for nine months, a Tony for special event). It also received a Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Award for best play, headlined the National Black Arts Festival, and was broadcast on both PBS and Showtime in consecutive years during Pride Month. After a year on the road, B.D. took and settled into a position teaching modern dance twice a week at City College in Harlem. His most recent public performance was on-screen, lifting both Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renée Zellweger in