Gay Festival Moves to UCI and Unfolds Peacefully : Lifestyles: The event comes off without the violence that erupted last year at the county’s first such observance, in Santa Ana. For today’s parade, 5,000 people are expected.

IRVINE —  Cupping a softball behind his back with the self-assured look of a major league pitcher, Laguna Beach City Councilman Robert F. Gentry leaned slowly forward in front of the dunking booth set up in the tree-lined center of UC Irvine.

The windup. The pitch. The splash.

Gentry’s well-aimed throw earned him a bull’s-eye--right in the middle of a picture of the frowning face of Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), an archconservative and renowned anti-gay legislator.

Asked how he felt about scoring the hit, Gentry--the only openly gay elected official in Orange County--shrugged and gave a good-natured “no comment.”

And so it went Saturday, as more than 500 people gathered for the first day of the second annual Orange County Gay and Lesbian Festival and Parade, held in UCI’s sprawling Aldrich Park.

Although a small band of men stood outside the fenced-off area in the hilly park shouting biblical phrases and warning participants not to enter the festival grounds, Saturday’s festivities were without the controversy and violence that erupted last year and marred the county’s first gay-pride festival in Santa Ana.

Participants milling past the dozens of information and food booths were relieved that Saturday’s festivities turned out more like a picnic or county fair than an emotionally charged brouhaha.

Instead of being forced to defend their lifestyle, many gays said they were pleased with the opportunity to spend the day simply seeking the fellowship of other gays.

“What we are doing is acknowledging who we are,” said Gentry, who is grand marshal of the festival’s parade scheduled for noon today, and will later have his turn sitting in the cage of the dunking booth.

Up to 5,000 people are expected to show up to watch the 74-entry parade, which will include four floats, marching bands, local gay celebrities and singing groups.

“Every day we share our experiences, we are getting stronger,” Gentry said. “This event gives each of us the strength and self-esteem to take the masks off and not lead double lives.”

As participants milled around the dozens of information and food booths dotting the park, the sounds of country, disco and New Wave music filled the air.

But along with the smiles, the suntanning and the Western dance lessons, participants said gays remain on an uphill battle for social, political and economic equality.

Indeed, the varied informational booths--where participants picked up flyers on acquired immune deficiency syndrome, alcoholism, pending gay-rights legislation and other issues--were focal points.

“Most gay and lesbian people don’t know how to handle hate crimes against them,” said John J. Duran, a gay-rights lawyer who was registering voters at the Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club booth.

The head of Alcoholism Services for Homosexuals, who would identify herself only as Dorothy, said many gays face dependency problems while also agonizing about revealing their sexual orientation to a sometimes-hostile straight world.

“So they hide behind a bottle,” she said. “But (during rehabilitation), they are learning to rise up from the ashes and face who they are.”

Sue Villa, a recovering alcoholic, said many gays became dependent on drink because in past years bars were major avenues for gays to meet each other.

Now, she said, events such as the gay-pride festivals held in Orange County, Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego and other social activities help take the focus off alcohol.

“Gay bars were the only thing we had. Now we have this,” Villa said as she watched the small groups of men and women stroll leisurely past the booth.

The nonprofit group Orange County Cultural Pride was established in 1988 to help promote awareness about the large gay community in the county, President Connie Long said. After last year’s festival, which was targeted by conservative preacher Lewis P. Sheldon, head of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, the 180-member UCI Gay and Lesbian Student Union invited the organization to hold the festival on campus.

The plan to hold it yearly at UCI was formed two months before gay students became embroiled in a controversy over a housing policy that they complained discriminated against them, said junior Link Schrader, a student organizer of the event.

Long said the group hopes to hold the festival at UCI each year.

“We’re here to stay,” Long said. “We’re going to be in Orange County. There are a lot of us, and we’re not going to back out.”