Seattle Next Gay Ghetto - The Stranger

Contents:

• PHILALPHIA WAS LIKELY FIRST CY TO HAVE A GAYBORHOOD
• THERE GO THE GAYBORHOOD
• “IN THIS PART OF THE CY, ALL THE FELLOWS ARE GAY:” EXPLORG THE HISTORY OF LGBTQ NIGHTLIFE AT ST. LOUIS’S GRAND AND OLIVE [3/3]
• GAY GHETTO
• GAY GHETTO PORN - GHETTO GAGGERS & GHETTO BARBIE VIOS
• THE G.O.P. TRI TO BUILD A GAY GHETTO
• SEATTLE NEXT GAY GHETTO
• WELE TO TEL AVIV, THE GAYT CY ON EARTH
• ARSEN: LEE DANIELS ON GROWG UP GAY THE GHETTO – ‘THERE WAS NEVER A CLOSET’ (VIO)
• LE GAY GHETTO: GAY RTOONS OM CHRISTOPHER STREET
• THE GAY GHETTO

PHILALPHIA WAS LIKELY FIRST CY TO HAVE A GAYBORHOOD

" – David Warner, first gay edor of Cy PaperThis month marks the 40-year anniversary of the first gay muny center to open Philalphia, a signifint moment the emergence of stutns openly meant to ter to the muny.

“I have not heard ‘gayborhood’ as an official name anywhere else bis Philalphia, ” says Am Ghaziani, profsor of soclogy and thor of the 2014 book There Go the Gayborhood?, which analyz the cle of LGBT neighborhoods the face of gentrifitn. That September, Ey Nsbm profiled a queer teen, recently arrived om Philalphia, and his first year the Big Apple for the New York Tim Magaze (The Wt Village was his favore, the ‘gayborhood’).

The mise of the red light district went hand--hand wh the cy’s attempt to draw more tourists, even beg the first to openly advertise self to queer travelers wh the slogan “Get your history straight and your nightlife gay. “There go the neighborhood, ” I thought as the last illn I had of this part of the cy as an clive yet uniquely gay space dissolved before my the past few years, the “ath of the Gayborhood” — a phrase once uttered mock horror whenever a favore hangout changed hands or a well-known stutn screwed up — has taken on an air of evabily. Two popular Gayborhood bars, Venture Inn and ICandy, have closed down, and Voyr and Woody’s have tried to broan their ctomer base by hostg bachelorette parti, exotic male revue shows for women, and even NFL watch parti.

THERE GO THE GAYBORHOOD

We saw this the polil arena 2018, when two openly gay black ndidat, Mallm Kenyatta and Alex Deerg, peted for a state Hoe seat the 181st District — a sectn of North Philalphia that’s both geographilly and enomilly distant om the Gayborhood. Cywi, LGBTQ visibily is siarly creasg the cultural realm: Large-sle LGBTQ-themed events have moved beyond the tradnal Pri weekend June and Outft October, and many former Gayborhood event producers and performers are bookg venu throughout the cy.

For many Philalphians, the Gayborhood is no longer the sole place for an LGBTQ experience, but jt another optn a growg field of clive this 50th anniversary year of the Stonewall rts New York, which brought the gay rights movement the U. To mastream attentn, members of Philly’s LGBTQ muny are reflectg — some wistfully, some crilly — on what the Gayborhood means today, and wonrg whether there’s really anythg left to be lost by venturg outsi the neighborhood’s now-fadg rabow-pated crosswalks.

•In the 1950s, Center Cy the vicy of 13th and Loct streets, which we now ll the Gayborhood, was known as the Loct Strip — a red-light district full of strip and htler bars, some of which tered to a gay clientele.

“IN THIS PART OF THE CY, ALL THE FELLOWS ARE GAY:” EXPLORG THE HISTORY OF LGBTQ NIGHTLIFE AT ST. LOUIS’S GRAND AND OLIVE [3/3]

”“When the gay bars and shops were lumped wh the ‘unsirable’ elements of the ’60s and ’70s and threatened wh police raids, the attacks had the effect of galvanizg the muny, ” says Bob Skiba, a Gayborhood historian and curator.

”In the wake of extensive civil rights work by LGBTQ activists around the untry the 1970s and durg the AIDS epimic the 1980s, the openly gay character of the neighborhood was firmly entrenched by the time Cy Paper edor and lumnist David Warner scribed an Outft celebratn as “a betiful day the gayborhood” the early 1990s. By 1999, the term Warner had ed was appearg on maps, and veloper tert soon stoked a rapid revalizatn that would turn the area om a llectn of bars and niche bs to a hot spot filled wh high-end rtrants and stutns played their own large rol the Gayborhood’s growth. In 2003, the Greater Philalphia Tourism Marketg Corporatn, now known as Vis Philalphia, lnched a hugely succsful mpaign vg potential visors to “Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay.

And while some observers would suggt that the change is a natural nsequence of wispread LGBTQ acceptance, others argue ’s a paful sign of gentrifitn that’s erasg the inty, culture, and tersectn of racial and genr diversy wh the Gayborhood. ”“The Gayborhood has changed along wh all of Center Cy, ” unters Valerie Saan, who wh her partner, Marcie Turney, owns Barbuzzo, Bud & Marilyn’s, and several other popular rtrants and retail shops the neighborhood.

GAY GHETTO

The Gayborhood stopped beg a neighborhood which the most margalized uld fd and be themselv and started to feel more like a tourist attractn for cultural this time, two natnal movements — Black Liv Matter, spearhead by queer black women, and the fight for marriage equaly, upheld by the Supreme Court 2015 — awakened my social nscns. By then, I was a young journalist verg the muny, and I began to notice ownership and learship dispari at Gayborhood spac, which were led predomantly by cisgenr whe men spe the notable role that people of lor across the genr spectm played shapg the area’s had, of urse, seen this before I did.

“Generally speakg, the Gayborhood has benefed om years of public- and private-sector attentn, creativy and rourc, thanks to high-end hog, the Avenue of the Arts, shoppg, rtrants, and ffee and other specialty shops, ” Hson says. ”It got to the pot where I uld no longer ignore the tragic irony of the Gayborhood: Formerly margalized LGBTQ people were still margalizg some of their own the one place that was supposed to be safe for all of . The offensive vio and the unverg of several cints of racial profilg and discrimatn at Gayborhood bars and nonprofs prompted LGBTQ activist groups to boytt and prott the stutns, which turn prompted addnal bs and learship the past year, I’ve felt that fdg thentic and tentnal LGBTQ experienc outsi of the Gayborhood was a necsy, but one that’s been easier than I expected.

”“We have to face the fact that queers create great and impactful culture and muni, and that non-queers then want to participate and even steal that culture, ” says Chris Bartlett, executive director of the William Way LGBT Communy Center and a longtime Gayborhood rint.

GAY GHETTO PORN - GHETTO GAGGERS & GHETTO BARBIE VIOS

Director Gee Cor, who lived above Sunset on Corll Drive, threw Sunday pool parti that beme a draw for “the glamour boys, the people who loved the glamour of Beverly Hills and the glamour of the Sunset Strip, ” says Matt Tyrner, director of Stty and the Secret History of Hollywood, an upg documentary about Stty Bowers, who operated a male prostutn rg that tered to the cy’s the 1930s, after Prohibn, to the 1950s, the Sunset Strip saw the heyday of famed hnts like Ciro’s, the Mombo, and the Troro as well as the lbian-iendly Jane Jon’ Ltle Club and the Veian-themed Café Gala, where gay sger and -proprietor Johnny Walsh held urt. In 1968, durg a raid at a spot lled the Patch Wilmgton, bar owner Lee Glaze led the crowd ristg arrt, exclaimg onstage at one pot, “It’s not agast the law to be homosexual, and ’s not a crime to be a gay bar. The stereotyp, largely te for the time, were that the gays to the east were more hippie, wh long hair and beards, while the rints of Wt Hollywood were more clean-cut—what some lled “sweater gays.

” “Wt Hollywood thought was a ltle b too grand for the rabble-roers of Echo Park and Silver Lake” is how Kilhefner puts gay liberatn bloomed post-Stonewall across the untry, Wt Hollywood transformed to a visibly gay neighborhood rather quickly, beg a mag for gay people om ls tolerant parts of the untry. So many bs ngregated one part of Wt Hollywood that beme known as Boystown, a nickname that many thk began as a joke by gay men referrg to the 1938 film about a Catholic home for orphan boys, though the Wt Hollywood Cy Council historil survey ems a rogatory term ed by straight people. ’s Gay Pri Para would shift om Hollywood, where origated 1970, to Wt para reloted to Wt Hollywood 1979, but after 2016’s event, the cisn was ma to move the startg pot back to HollywoodPhotograph by Genaro Mola / Getty ImagThe ph to rporate the cy the that followed was ially spurred by enomic issu.

THE G.O.P. TRI TO BUILD A GAY GHETTO

A aln of Jews, the elrly, and gay men and women (the latter two posg an timated 30 percent of the populatn) put cyhood on the ballot, and the Cy of Wt Hollywood was tablished on November 29, 1984.

The progrsive new cy uncil, of which three of the five members were gay, swiftly stuted a rent-ntrol ordance, passed laws protectg gay rints and people wh AIDS/HIV om discrimatn (polici that are mastream today), outlawed discrimatory practic agast people of lor that had taken root at some nightclubs, and brought down Barneys Beanery’s antigay signage for good. Wealthy gay polil power nsolidated Wt Hollywood as well wh the formatn of the Municipal Electns Commtee of Los Angel, or MECLA, the only gay PAC of s kd at the time; MECLA’s breakfasts at the Bel Age Hotel beme a mt-stop for unty and cy policians until 1991. Neighborhood that had a signifint gay prence, wh Pershg Square Park a well-known meetg spot and a stretch of 5th Street known as “the Run” bee s rtrants, bars, and ffee shops served a gay clientele.

Gay people have claimed that there exist wh major ci "gay ghettos", neighborhoods hog large numbers of homosexual men and women as well as gatherg plac where homosexual behavr is generally accepted, and have signated as such certa sectns of Boston, New York, Chigo, San Francis, and Los Angel (Aiken, 1976, p. Brtay Newman for The New York TimThis past weekend, the Republin Party Texas voted on an outrageo platform that not only ni the rults of the 2020 printial electn, but also rejects gay marriage and seeks to “protect” mors until they turn 17 agast “predatory sexual behavrs, ” such as drag queens readg stori aloud to queens are predators, trans women are a threat and gay marriage is a vlatn of the “natural orr”: This is all part of the wing and re-energized attack by Republins on L. Hodg guaranteeg a right to same-sex lg was herald as a major civil rights victory by s proponents, but many opponents of gay rights saw as a lost battle a war, not the loss of the war.

SEATTLE NEXT GAY GHETTO

For them, gay marriage is too big a velopment to simply Prager, wrg Natnal Review, argued that the lg pleted “the secularizatn of Ameri” and sealed “the end of Ameri as the Founrs envisned . Muny om “vlence and opprsn, ” urtg openly gay donors like Peter Thiel and later referrg to gay marriage as settled law, he would go on to take unprecented steps “to unrme and elimate rights protectg L. People, ” as Alphonso David, then the print of the Human Rights Campaign, put Tmp’s exhstive list of transgrsns agast gay people were his admistratn’s attempts to lerally erase them by tryg to block new qutns about sexual orientatn om the cens and tryg to fe transgenr people out of existence, proposg to “fe sex as eher male or female, unchangeable, and termed by the genals that a person is born wh, ” acrdg to The New York, there was the Supreme Court self.

Shortly after sanctned gay marriage, Mike Huckabee, a printial ndidate 2016, fumed that the “Supreme Court n no more repeal the laws of nature and nature’s God on marriage than n the law of gravy. Durg a 2016 lecture, Barrett seemed to fend the jtic who dissented the gay marriage se and qutned whether was up to the urt to ci issu like which bathroom transgenr people should be allowed to that time, Republin state legislators were troducg a number of bathroom bills, an early step their ph to opprs queer people. ) Now, we are wnsg the evable rult, as Republin legislators win the attacks to queerns this year, we saw Florida pass s “Don’t Say Gay” no mistake, this is all part of a renewed, broad-based attack on gay rights and gay culture, to stanch the rise of young people who are g out.

WELE TO TEL AVIV, THE GAYT CY ON EARTH

Republins may not be able to ph people back to the closet, but they n try to re-tablish some stigma to prevent them om g out the first place and build them — — cultural gay ghettos if we do.

When out gay men and lbians moved to ndown urban neighborhoods the late '60s and early '70s, they rented apartments no one else wanted, started bs on blocks where no one else thought bs uld thrive, and had sex unr bh that no one else wanted to have sex unr. Neighborhoods like New York's East Village, San Francis's Castro, Chigo's Lake View, and Seattle's Capol Hill slowly gentrified, wh hors of gays and lbians makg the once dicey neighborhoods safe for florists, rd shops, and sex clubs.

ARSEN: LEE DANIELS ON GROWG UP GAY THE GHETTO – ‘THERE WAS NEVER A CLOSET’ (VIO)

For years, first-wave gay ghettos were kept lively and relevant by a nstant stream of young queer migrants arrivg om upstate New York, downstate Illois, ral California, and eastern Washgton. And for years, young queers movg to the gay ghettos uld rely on three thgs: cheap apartments, low-payg retail jobs, and lots of other young queers wh cheap apartments and low-payg retail jobs wh whom they uld swap sp and var sexually transmted diseas.

Gay ghettos are slowly turng to gay retirement muni, where the only queers who n afford to live the East Village or on Capol Hill are the on who bought apartments and ho 20 years ago when they were still relatively cheap. In asssg the fns of var neighborhoods for gay-ghettoizatns, we looked at four creria: Average rent for a stud apartment, potential for a gay dance club, potential public sex environment, and average age of current rints (on the theory that the olr the average rints, the faster the apartment turnover).

LE GAY GHETTO: GAY RTOONS OM CHRISTOPHER STREET

WEST SEATTLE Average Rent for Stud Apartment: $569 Potential Gay Dance Palace: Any empty warehoe on Wt Margal Way Potential Public Sex Environment: Lln Park Average Age of Rints: 38 s Seattle's old-guard queers tire of battlg wannab and lossal monthly rents, they are abandong the once sacred Hill by the fistful. An abundance of factors, cludg accsibily, shoppg, nightlife, reasonable rent, and at least one public park wh foliage ample enough to nceal midnight discretn all terme a neighborhood's potential as a gay ghetto. First is important to intify the number of public schools, dayre facili, nursg hom, muny centers, church, and siar tablishments that are not only of posively no e to queer people, but may even reprent a tangible threat to attag the cril mass necsary to create a tly gay ghetto.

The ever-tougheng dnk drivg laws and the general repulsivens of public transportatn would make livg Wt Seattle and partyg at Seattle's current gay hotspots -- now exclively Capol Hill and downtown -- nearly impossible.

THE GAY GHETTO

Although none are exclively gay (yet), Wt Seattle is home to a few funky and potentially queer bars and loung that are ripe for vasn: the Pagoda Room (spicly remiscent of the Hill's Ja Pagoda) and the Lizzard Lounge among them.

"The Junctn, " Wt Seattle's hoppg and chic bs district, provis many tablishments dispensable to gay life: mic, book, and retail stor, hairdrsers, galleri, naturopathic physicians and acupuncturists for the immune-impaired, and f.

A young woman who intified herself as Kenlee (a non-tradnal name -- a good sign) answered the phone and gave the followg rponse, "I don't get the whole gay thg, really, but que a few of my iends are gay and they are the olt people I know. -- Adrian Ryan COLUMBIA CITY Average Rent for Stud Apartment: $408 Potential Gay Dance Club: Cy Electric Potential Public Sex Environment: The shbbery ont of Columbia Funeral Home Average Age of Rints: 32 he ia of a gay neighborhood passed om stunng to obv as I moved om Boston's Northampton, to D. " And so, wh Capol Hill ultimately fallg to people who are willg to pay $1, 600 a month to live close to Wrapp Around the Clock, 's time to pack up our makp s and t rriers, and bravely lonize the Next Gay Neighborhood, like so many fashnable bacteria a h petri dish.