There Goes the Gayborhood?

by Amin Ghaziani

Overview

An in-depth look at America's changing gay neighborhoods

Gay neighborhoods, like the legendary Castro District in San Francisco and New York's Greenwich Village, have long provided sexual minorities with safe havens in an often unsafe world. But as our society increasingly accepts gays and lesbians into the mainstream, are "gayborhoods" destined to disappear? Amin Ghaziani provides an incisive look at the origins of these unique cultural enclaves, the reasons why they are changing today, and their prospects for the future.

Drawing on a wealth of evidence—including census data, opinion polls, hundreds of newspaper reports from across the United States, and more than one hundred original interviews with residents in Chicago, one of the most paradigmatic cities in America—There Goes the Gayborhood? argues that political gains and societal acceptance are allowing gays and lesbians to imagine expansive possibilities for a life beyond the gayborhood. The dawn of a new post-gay era is altering the character and composition of existing enclaves across the country, but the spirit of integration can coexist alongside the celebration of differences in subtle and sometimes surprising ways.

Exploring the intimate relationship between sexuality and the city, this cutting-edge book reveals how gayborhoods, like the cities that surround them, are organic and continually evolving places. Gayborhoods have nurtured sexual minorities throughout the twentieth century and, despite the unstoppable forces of flux, will remain resonant and revelatory features of urban life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400850174
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/10/2014
Series:	Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology , #63
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Amin Ghaziani is associate professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
PART I. GAYBORHOODS ARE CHANGING . . .
Chapter 1 Beyond the Gayborhood 35
Chapter 2 The Happiest Ending 64
Chapter 3 Triggers 102
PART II. BUT ARE THEY DISAPPEARING?
Chapter 4 Cultural Archipelagos 133
Chapter 5 Resonance 166
Chapter 6 Reinvention 210
Conclusions 244
Acknowledgments 261
The Language of Sexuality 267
Appendix: What Are Gayborhoods? How Do We Study Them? 271
Notes 287
Works Cited 315
Index 337

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Through the lens of gayborhoods, Amin Ghaziani offers a provocative and insightful new analysis of the gay experience. He combines historical documentation, popular media accounts, and empirical data to tell a compelling story of how gayborhoods shaped LGBT and urban life in America and considers what might be next for these enclaves in a post-gay society."—Gary J. Gates, Williams Institute, University of California, Los Angeles

"What happens to cities when gay life moves out of the closet and into the streets? In this important book, Amin Ghaziani examines the cultural politics and political economy of the gayborhood, charting its emergence as a safe space in a hostile environment and its evolving role in the gentrifying metropolis. There Goes the Gayborhood? is original, timely, and provocative. It's destined to spark a heated debate."—Eric Klinenberg, author of Going Solo and Heat Wave

"As gayness moves from the closet to the mainstream, the social and spatial structure of the gay community is inevitably changing. Social transformations are always expressed in the urban landscape, and gay neighborhoods are no exception. In his superb new book, Amin Ghaziani offers a nuanced and perceptive guide to the changing nature of gay life in contemporary urban America. As a former resident of San Francisco's Castro neighborhood during its heyday, I read the book with great interest and much appreciation for the power of Ghaziani's sociological imagination."—Douglas S. Massey, Princeton University

"Gayborhoods may come and go, but identities continue to inform processes of urbanization. This is a lively and informative read that contributes to contemporary theorizing on sexuality and space. Ghaziani deftly parses through demographic information and sociological narratives to clarify the histories and futures of sexual communities in the era of the post-gay."—Jasbir K. Puar, author of Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times

"Examining the declining centrality of iconic urban gayborhoods in the wake of dramatic gains in social acceptance of gays and lesbians, Ghaziani nimbly escapes the twin pitfalls of lamenting liberationist losses or celebrating assimilationist victories. This sensitive and sensible intervention into 'post-gay' discourse on the shifting social geography of sex and the city makes welcome contributions to both queer and urban studies."—Judith Stacey, New York University

"There Goes the Gayborhood? is an extraordinarily researched and considered study of how we understand neighborhoods, communities, and cities in the post-gay era. Despite the increasing tolerance and support of gay culture in today's society, Ghaziani makes a clear and cogent case that the gayborhood remains an important source of identity, social capital, and solidarity among sexual minorities."—Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, author of The Warhol Economy

"Marshaling census data, historical records, and voices of gayborhood denizens, Ghaziani tells the complex story of queer geographies in the United States. In doing so, he eloquently documents how gayborhoods—their compositions, meanings, and functions—have evolved along with larger cultural, gendered, economic, and sexual changes."—C. J. Pascoe, author of Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School

"There Goes the Gayborhood? contributes to the important and growing literature on sexuality, moving past questions about individual identity and social-movement activism to address broader questions about daily life, social interaction, and the spaces in which people live."—Robert Wuthnow, author of Small-Town America

Editorial Reviews

04/28/2014
In this survey of gay neighborhoods in the U.S., University of British Columbia sociologist Ghaziani (The Dividends of Dissent) offers passionate and refreshing insights on a politically charged issue. Taking the “gayborhood” as his subject, Ghaziani analyzes the phenomenon of “gay ghettos” using rich statistical data, historical analysis, a comprehensive review of news reports, and in-depth interviews with gays and heterosexuals. The result is a panoramic view of both the dimensions and cultural evolution of the gay neighborhood, and a response to the titular question: are gayborhoods and their once rich cultural vibrancy in decline? Ghaziani’s answers refuse easy scapegoats or facile conclusions, and suggest that the cultural evolution of gayborhoods need not entail their demise. He brings much needed nuance to heated debates about the role of gay neighborhoods in wider patterns of gentrification, and illustrates how the growth of tolerance is not evenly distributed across the country, making the need for “safe space” especially urgent for some LGBT constituencies. Much of the book focuses on the Chicago gay enclaves of Boystown and Andersonville, limiting its scope somewhat, but the findings are not to be missed. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"[U]nique. . . . [Ghaziani] makes use of a variety of tools—personal interviews, census data, and surveys, among them—to explore what th[e] decentralization [of the gayborhood] means as part of a larger cultural shift."

Choice

"The year 1978 held many contradictions for gay rights in the United States. The city of San Francisco, for instance, passed one of the country's first ordinances prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, public accommodations, and employment in the private sector. Yet, later that year, Harvey Milk – the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California – was murdered. That same year, during his tenure at the University of Chicago, a relatively unknown sociologist (William Julius Wilson) published his groundbreaking study The Declining Significance of Race (1978). In that book, he argued that race had become secondary to socioeconomic status in determining an African American's life chances. There Goes the Gayborhood? can be best understood through the historical lens of the contradictions and diversities occurring within gay America in 1978 and beyond, as well as through the intellectual lens developed by Wilson in 1978 and beyond (1987). To see the relevance of the latter, one need only swap sexual orientation for race. In terms of the former, Mitchell Duneier and his colleagues note that ‘…good ethnography can turn into great social history' (2014, pg. 2); and indeed that's what Ghaziani has accomplished."—-Juan Battle, Social Forces

"The book especially takes up the important question of whether or not the disappearance of predominantly gay neighborhoods indicates new urban problems or new urban possibilities. Drawing on a combination of archival, interview and ethnographic data, Ghaziani explores the rise, fall, and relative importance of establishing, sustaining and maintaining predominantly gay urban neighborhoods… Once invisible areas of the city, urban gay neighborhoods have become featured in many city maps and tourism ephemera as places to see, eat, party, and understand the city writ large. Ghaziani powerfully builds from this contemporary reality to reveal the historical, political, and economic consequences of the heightened visibility of LGBT citizens and the neighborhoods in which they predominate."—-Marcus Anthony Hunter, Metropolitics

"Drawing on an impressive array of media sources, census counts, opinion polls, interviews and ethnographic observations, Ghaziani develops a nuanced and sophisticated understanding of social change related to gay-dominated areas within metropolitan cities. The arguments in the book are oriented around one particular paradox: the perceived decline of ‘the gayborhood' in US cities and the emergence of a post-gay world occurred primarily because of the erosion of homophobia. How do gay people keep together, Ghaziani asks, when they no longer see the need to live in the same place for safety or solidarity? . . . Ghaziani writes in an engaging, inclusive style, and it is easy to see why his book has drawn such widespread media attention. This is done without loss of clarity or academic rigor, and is particularly welcome in a sub-discipline where language all-too-often becomes obtuse and impenetrable."—-Mark McCormack, Sociology

"[T]his is an excellent book with well-structured arguments and interesting empirics . . . Ghaziani has produced a highly relevant study on a subject which is relatively understudied in mainstream urban sociology, geography and demography. Compared with class, ethnicity and life course, there is shockingly little work on the role of sexuality in understanding the changes, meanings and ‘effects' of neighbourhoods and in residential mobility. As societal acceptance is growing, urban scholars can no longer be content with the odd gaybourhood case study or with simply casting gays as typical gentrifiers."—-Wouter van Gent, Urban Studies

"Ghaziani provides us with a thoughtful consideration not only of the contextual drivers of change in gay residential concentration in urban neighborhoods, but a vision for the role that gayborhoods still have yet to play in the lives of sexual minorities and urban landscapes into the twenty-first century."—-Brian C. Kelly, City & Community

"There Goes the Gayborhood? is a well-researched, timely study that should be of interest to both urban and sexuality scholars. The book is well written and accessible, making it appropriate for graduate and undergraduate students as well as for more general readers."—-Melinda D. Kane, American Journal of Sociology

"[A] well-written, thoroughly researched, and engaging book."—-Matt Ruther, Contemporary Sociology

From the Publisher

"Gayborhood is an excellent resource . . . [The book] presents an intriguing answer to its question. The gayborhood is not simply ‘disappearing,' but it is transforming and changing. Working with this complex process rather than lamenting a time past is an interesting way to think about queerness and queer identity in a world that is also fluid and changing."

Journal of Homosexuality

06/01/2014
Ghaziani (sociology, Univ. of British Columbia; The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington) investigates how predominantly gay neighborhoods, or "gayborhoods," are changing. He argues that people move out of these areas because the Internet makes virtual networking easier than in the past, older gay men and lesbians often prioritize quiet over proximity to other gay people, and families put living near good school systems first. Later chapters consider the continued need for gay neighborhoods as safe havens, and the opinions of those groups that feel excluded from primarily white, male areas. The author becomes heatedly defensive when discussing even the possibility of the demise of his beloved gayborhood of Boystown in Chicago, going so far as to subtly denigrate interviewees with whose opinions he disagrees. When discussing topics that he can view objectively, Ghaziani provides a fascinating, rich view that is supported by up-to-date statistics. VERDICT Recommended for readers with a solid understanding of the history of gay culture who worry about changes to predominantly gay neighborhoods. This book would be a strong read for anyone who enjoyed Deborah B. Gould's Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP's Fight against AIDS.—Jessica Spears, Monroe Coll. Lib., Bronx, NY

Library Journal

2014-06-18
Are gay and lesbian communities losing the safety-netted solidarity of their urban centers to gentrification?In an attempt to understand a contemporary, hot-button issue facing iconic gay neighborhoods in flux, Ghaziani (Sociology/Univ. of British Columbia; The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington, 2008) mines the roots of “gayborhoods” to understand where and why they began and the challenges they face. As homosexuality gains wider societal acceptance, are the “gay ghettos,” once considered bastions of organized solidarity, sexual freedom, and safety from anti-gay bigotry and violence, feeling the pinch? In a book rich with demographical statistics of same-sex-couple households, useful charts and personal interviews, Ghaziani delivers an unbiased perspective carefully weighing the consequences and the benefits of conformity for formerly homogenous gayborhoods countrywide. He documents how “post-gay era” singles and those married (with or without children) are opting for more mainstream districts without fear of ostracism. Yet, he counters, housing, employment and relationship discrimination continues to flourish in less-tolerant areas of the country, still creating a need for these protective spaces. Ghaziani focuses primarily on the Chicago area, which is considered a “vibrant sexual laboratory” facing the same gentrification and social identity issues as other high-profile gay enclaves found in San Francisco and New York City. The author also examines generational shifts, the evaporation of gay businesses due to the ease of Internet commerce and a decline in the significance of sexual orientation. He points to this conundrum as a double-edged sword and a trade-off: a consequence of conformity and a byproduct of the equality fought for through decades of derision.Encompassing more than just the diminishing homogeneity of gay ghettos, Ghaziani’s important work also demonstrates an appreciation for how the provocative past, present and future of gay culture continues to evoke impassioned rhetoric and opinion.

Kirkus Reviews