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Gay village:Toronto's Church and Wellesley district, one of the largest gay villages in North America
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Toronto's Church and Wellesley district, one of the largest gay villages in North America
Gay village:Rainbow flags are displayed in The Castro area of San Francisco as a symbol of gay pride
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Rainbow flags are displayed in The Castro area of San Francisco as a symbol of gay pride
Gay village:The entrance to Chueca metro station in the Plaza de Chueca (Chueca square) in Madrid, during gay pride week.
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The entrance to Chueca metro station in the Plaza de Chueca (Chueca square) in Madrid, during gay pride week.

A gay village (sometimes called a gay ghetto, gay enclave, and increasingly gayborhood) is usually an urban geographic location with generally recognized boundaries where a large number of gay and lesbian people, as well as bisexuals and transsexuals live. They usually contain a number of gay-oriented establishments, such as gay bars or pubs, nightclubs, bathhouses, restaurants, bookstores, and other businesses.

Such areas may represent a gay-friendly oasis in an otherwise hostile city, or may simply have a high concentration of gay residents and/or businesses. As with many urban 'groups', gay and lesbian spaces or villages are a manifestation both of their necessity for a tolerant space as well as choice. Much as other urbanized groups, lesbians and gay men have managed to utilize their spaces as a way to reflect gay cultural value and serve the special needs of individuals in relation to society at large. In cities that have the necessary critical mass to support such a community, the gay 'ghetto' provides a normalization of space that is essential to the culture’s ability to be supported and practiced in a safe environment.


Contents

Names

Gay villages are often called a variety of names within the gay community, including gayborhood, gay-to (a pun on ghetto), gaytown/gayville and Queer Quarter. Such names are particularly common in the United States and Canada.

The "ghetto"

The term ‘ghetto’ is often used to describe gay communities in urban areas. Because this is a term that is employed by sociologists to describe a city housing a segregated cultural community, many believe that this definition is not an entirely inappropriate term. Historically, the term "ghetto" applied only to the Jewish community, although it has, throughout the 20th century, been used to describe a variety of groups that mainstream society deemed outside the norm, including poor blacks, gay men and lesbians, hobos, prostitutes, and bohemians.

It is not surprising that these neighbourhoods often arise from zones of discard—that is, crowded, high density, and often deteriorated inner city districts. Indeed, many of these inner city districts were the only spaces where alternatives to identity and community based on the nuclear family could be constructed. These spaces—and the institutions of which they are comprised—are critical sites where members of gender and sexual minorities congregate. From one perspective, these spaces are places of marginality created by an often homophobic heterosexual community; from another perspective, they are places of refuge where members of gender and sexual minorities can benefit from the concentration of safe, non-discriminatory resources and services.

In some cities, gays and lesbians concentrate in visibly gay neighbourhoods, while in other cities they concentrate in neighbourhoods that require less gay visibility because a liberal, affirming counterculture is present. For example, gays and lesbians in San Francisco concentrate in the overtly gay and lesbian-oriented Castro neighbourhood, while gays and lesbians in Seattle concentrate in the bohemian stomping ground of Capitol Hill. Both areas, however, have higher concentrations of gay and lesbian residents and businesses that cater to them than do surrounding neighbourhoods.

History of the gay village

The gay ghetto is a relatively new invention. Prior to the 1960s and 1970s, spatialized gay communities did not exist as such; bars were usually where gay social networks developed, and they were located in certain urban areas where police zoning would implicitly allow so-called ‘deviant entertainment’ under close surveillance. In New York, for example, the congregation of gay men had not been illegal since 1965; however, no openly gay bar had been granted a license to serve alcohol. The police raid of a private gay club called the Stonewall Inn on June 27, 1969—a raid that supposedly took place due to the illegal serving of alcohol and because of its ostensible connection to the mafia—led to a three day riot involving over 1000 people. Stonewall managed to change not only the profile of the gay community but the dynamic within the community itself. After the civil disobedience exhibited at Stonewall, where the most marginalized, "out," and "gender-bending" members of society gained the courage to question authority and assert their individuality, the diverse group was given a public space. This along with several other similar incidents precipitated the appearance of gay ghettos throughout North America, as spatial organization shifted from bars and street-cruising to specific neighbourhoods. This transition “from the bars to the streets, from nightlife to daytime, from ‘sexual deviance’ to an alternative lifestyle” was the critical moment in the development of the gay community (Castells, 1983 p.141).

The term "gay village" derives from New York City's Greenwich Village, where the Stonewall riots took place.

Gentrification

The gentrification of some urban neighbourhoods has been catalysed by gay villages. Certain patterns of residential development are particular to the community.

The gentrification is linked, in part, to changing national and global economies, and in particular to the social and spatial restructuring of labour processes. Heavy industry has been leaving North America for developing countries or leaving central business districts for suburban areas, seeking, in both cases, cheaper land, labour, and tax costs. Conversely, the service sector has been steadily expanding, and investment in high-tech industries has increased. Much of the new corporate-managerial and service-sector investment has tended to be, not insignificantly, in the CBDs of large cities, and these sectors have also tended to employ large proportions of low-wage and/or part-time labour, much of it female. The expansion of these jobs in CBDs has constituted a significant part of the economic pull-factor to urban areas for lesbians and gay men, complementing the attraction of the cities as centres of gay life.

Lauria and Knopp, professors at the University of New Orleans and University of Minnesota respectively, tie these processes to the spatial nature of the urban renaissance which was occurring at the time. They also argue that the “first wave” of low-wage gay residences in these urban centres paved the way for other, more affluent gay professionals to move into the neighbourhoods; this wealthier group played a significant role in the gentrification of many inner city neighbourhoods. The professors also noted that the presence of gay men in the real estate industry of San Francisco was a major factor facilitating the urban renaissance of the city in the 1970s. In many ways, gay men were in an excellent position to become gentrifiers; they often earned more money on average than their female counterparts in every sector of the economy, and they had fewer (if any) dependants than heterosexual men.

Consumerisation

The gentrification of once run-down inner-city areas, coupled with the staging of pride parades in these areas, has resulted in the increased visibility of gay communities. Parades such as Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras attract significant investment and create tourist revenue, and cities are beginning to realize, firstly, that the acceptance (or promotion) of lesbian and gay culture is fast becoming a sign of urban "sophistication," and secondly, that gay-oriented events, such as pride parades, the World Outgames and the Gay Games, are potentially lucrative events, attracting thousands of gay tourists and their dollars. The growing recognition of the economic value of the gay community is not only associated with their wealth but also with the role that lesbians and gay men have played (and continue to play) in urban revitalization.

Some cities have taken it upon themselves to artificially create gay villages to capitalize on gay dollars. Oakland, California recently (as of 2004) tried to create a village in a run-down portion of the city in an attempt to divert entertainment and shopping dollars from neighbouring San Francisco. The project has achieved mixed results as that city's gay community is spread out over a wide area. Moreover, some critics claim that the level of social acceptance is higher in Oakland than in other cities, negating the need for a centralized gay village.

List of gay villages

Gay village:Beaudry metro station in Montreal's Village gai
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Beaudry metro station in Montreal's Village gai

The following is an incomplete list of gay villages around the world. It should be noted that gay villages can vary widely from city to city and country to country. Furthermore, some large cities develop "satellite" gay villages that are essentially "overflow" areas; in such cases, lesbians and gay men become priced-out of gentrified gay villages and move to other, more affordable areas, thereby creating entirely new gay villages. Some of the listed gay villages are technically not neighborhoods of a larger city but a separate entity entirely from the city for which they are the primary gay enclave, e.g. - West Hollywood and Wilton Manors.

Some cities have a well-defined gay village in the heart of a larger area with a significant gay population that would not necessarily be considered a gay village. For example, Davie Village is the heart of Vancouver's gay community, but sits within the greater West End area which, though decently populated by gay people, is not necessarily considered a gay village. Other examples of this phenomenon include Chicago's Boystown neighborhood, a well-defined gay village situated in the largely (though not predominantly) gay Lakeview community. In some cities, such as Stockholm and Copenhagen, there are no established gay villages, partly due to the differing social dynamics of these cities (less social segration within the city), but also due to earlier and greater social acceptance of the gay community within mainstream society. However there are areas which were historically known as meeting places for gays, such as Södermalm in Stockholm, which remains a somewhat trendy area for gays to live, though it certainly does not have a predominantly gay population.

List of gay towns and resort areas

Furthermore, several towns, particularly resorts, are known as primarily gay areas. They differ from gay villages in that they are generally self-governing municpalities and not enclaves within large cities. Some of the resort destinations (e.g., Provincetown, Key West) attract even more gay people (i.e., tourists) during the summer months.

See also

References

Categories


Gay villages | Urban studies and planning

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