Love Over Bias

(upbeat techno music)

- [Keith] Anything that you do

definitely has the element of power.

When you're actually out there,

and you're actually voguing or you're actually walking,

and the beat is taking you,

then you just go for it.

(upbeat music)

- My name is Keith Holt.

When I'm out at the balls, I become Keith Ebony

the crown prince of Baltimore.

Voguing, it's an underground art form,

that was brought to like throw shade on the dance floor.

Ballroom in general was developed to be underground.

Partially because of so much stigma and hate

that the LGBT community have experienced.

This is a place that you can be anything that you want to be

James is like that new generation of voguers.

- How you doin? I'm the Legendary Lil James Khan.

I'm the vogue fem extraordinaire.

- [Keith] He is like the Beyoncé of the ballroom scene.

Mook is my best friend.

- I am the voice of Baltimore, Mook Mizrahi.

The dramatic one.

- [Keith] He commentates, he vogue.

James, Mook, and myself are some people that

are really leading the next generation.

(upbeat music)

- [Keith] I work for the Baltimore city health department.

I'm the youth outreach coordinator.

With that I kind of come up with the different events.

And something that kept coming up was,

why not throw a ball?

So we have our free ball.

And because Baltimore has a high rate in HIV,

that's why we make sure that every event that we have

we do offer both HIV testing and HIV linkage

to treatment as well.

For me it's really like this is not just a job.

This is my community.

These are people that I know.

Ballroom is not just a extracurricular activity anymore.

It's actually now a part of my life.

(upbeat music)