In recent s, “LGBT neighbourhoods” or “gay Villag” have been gag some promence and particular characteristics wh ci, reprentg safe spac for the exprsn and negotiatn of dividual and llective inti as well as for the polil affirmatn of LGBT muni and queer inti. As other areas that have been the ma drivers of urban revalizatn of ner-ci, such as cultural and creative quarters or multicultural spac, the terrori distguish for the social practic of their ers and habants, the specifici of their enomic activy, or their ntribute to creativy or social tegratn. More than muny ghettos, the areas have been characterized by their openns and vibrancy, enhancg the existence of diverse liftyl, trajectori and inti, but also by the ntributn of LGBT people to the gentrifitn of the districts through their strong mercial, rintial and symbolic prence.Drawg upon an empiril work veloped Lisbon (Príncipe Real district) and Madrid (Chue district), based on -pth terviews to LGBT rints and participant observatn the two neighbourhoods, this paper characteriz the ma evolutnary trajectori and specifici of the two districts. An analysis is ma nontg the characteristics and ntgenci of the areas wh other s prevly studied lerature, intifyg the existence of notable differenc and suggtg evince of signifint specifici, which n reprent a “South European” approach to the realy of “Gay Villag”. Some generic prcipl for urban planng are drawn out om the analysis.
Contents:
- GAY UPL AT HOME THE VILLAG
- THE 'GAYTRIFITN' EFFECT: WHY GAY NEIGHBOURHOODS ARE BEG PRICED OUT
- LAKE BLUFF NSIRS FLYG GAY PRI FLAG ON VILLAGE FLAGPOLE; ‘WE N SEND THE RIGHT MSAGE, THAT WE ARE AN ACCEPTG ... MUNY’
- THE GAY ECSTASY OF THE VILLAGE PEOPLE
- LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS THE VILLAG, FL
- GAYT PLAC IN FLORIDA FOR 2020
- BETWEEN “GHETTOS”, “SAFE SPAC” AND “GAYTRIFITN”
GAY UPL AT HOME THE VILLAG
Affluent and unhampered by children – or so the myth go – LGBT cy-dwellers have long been at the vanguard of transformg ndown neighbourhoods. But now gentrifitn is threateng even the most proment gay villag * the villages gay community *
Wily known as a cril votg bloc for right-wg ndidat, is also, ls nspicuoly, home to a thrivg gay Rabow club has no head unt — years of discrimatn have ma the gay muny leery of lists — but emails reach close to 2, leads to creasgly crlo qutns:1. ''It was the ncept of never havg to leave the neighborhood — the Villag has more than 100 rtrants, 45 golf urs, partment stor and almost every other necsy — that attracted Garv and O'Donnell om San Diego a social clubs for every nceivable persuasn already the Villag, the ia of gettg gay rints together seemed a is, until O'Donnell and Garv first tried 10 years ago. While gay rints threw a prott-ee celebratn a town square after the recent Supreme Court cisn legalizg same-sex marriag, there were a number of hate-filled ments on lol msage boards Joseph Flynn, the Villag Democratic Club director, says those who sport liberal bumper stickers still n the risk of beg Flynn and Rabow members say the image of the Villag beg overn by the tea party is exaggerated and outdated.
This is a phenomenon that has also stck straight pubs and clubs, of urse; ’s jt that, unlike gay venu, they don’t yet risk beg an endangered all reasons for the closur are entirely bad.
Photograph: Ron Gerelli/Getty ImagWhile Bra the wang of gay-intified neighbourhoods is largely nfed to London, outsi the UK is a phenomenon that is beg played out across many wtern ci.
THE 'GAYTRIFITN' EFFECT: WHY GAY NEIGHBOURHOODS ARE BEG PRICED OUT
Affluent and unhampered by children – or so the myth go – this group is always the g vanguard of gentrifyg areas, pricg out long-term lols and leavg behd a trail of look-but-don’t-touch furnure shops and overpriced are urban gay people who are watchg their stutns and neighbourhoods disappear merely reapg what they sowed? Those wh the means were th more likely to look for hog that was cheap enough to buy outright: for example, 1950s Soho (for gay men) and the Hebn Bridge, Wt Yorkshire, of the 1960s and 70s (for lbians). Florida’s theory placed gay people at the heart of urban regeneratn, part of a gentrifyg vanguard along wh creative and tech workers and “high bohemians”, who together helped to repopulate and refurbish prevly ndown urban areas.
If this tolerance of gay people is matched by a higher level of foreign-born rints and racial mixg, is even more likely to attract the creative workers on which a cy’s enomic succs pends.
LAKE BLUFF NSIRS FLYG GAY PRI FLAG ON VILLAGE FLAGPOLE; ‘WE N SEND THE RIGHT MSAGE, THAT WE ARE AN ACCEPTG ... MUNY’
In other words, the more gay people your cy attracts, the more tolerant is likely to Jo Jo’s nightclub London’s Soho was forced to close November 2014. Acrdg to soclogy profsor Am Ghaziani, who rearched the subject extensively while wrg his book, There Go the Gayborhood?, there is evince om North Ameri to back up assumptns that LGBT rints boost property pric. “We know that areas that have large ncentratns of gays and lbians experience greater creas hog pric pared to the US natnal average, ” Ghaziani says.
Urban areas where LGBTs both lived and played may have spng up easily the sprawl of Amerin ci, but the UK’s gay villag simply don’t f the same template. Even s ndown phase, London’s Soho was too expensive and domated by mercial property to attract a massive ncentratn of gay ’s still a pattern clearly regnisable the UK to the procs Ghaziani scrib. The muny anisatn LGBT Detro has been tryg to enurage the (unofficial) foundg of a gay village the cy, as a way of providg more solidary and support for a muny that’s weaker for beg geographilly the anisatn’s director Curtis Lipsb explas: “We had a few areas where LGBT people moved to after the send world war, but they lasted only until the last major whe flight, when a large number of whe gays and lbians moved to the northern suburbs.
”But isn’t fosterg a gay-iendly neighbourhood likely to create a suatn where LGBT people only end up beg moved on by gentrifitn, even beleaguered Detro? So while you might have some [straight] rints who bee terted a [gay-iendly] neighbourhood once starts showg visual improvements, you still have people wh strong negative feelgs about LGBT people.
THE GAY ECSTASY OF THE VILLAGE PEOPLE
The Lake Bluff Village Board is nsirg raisg a gay pri flag on a village flagpole, but tste are lookg for addnal rmatn before takg formal members discsed the ia at a July 10 Commtee of the Whole meetg, rumg a nversatn that began at a June ssn after two rints ntacted village officials supportg the ia of raisg a pri flag, acrdg to village documents.
However, be this memory real or simulacm, strik me as hilar given what the Village People are universally known for: tongue--cheek gay nuendo, sparsely vered by a flimsy veneer of hyper-macho drag. However the service’s tomatic n-on feature clearly disagreed and cid that, when Cowley’s sensual, gay bathhoe-ready rhythms end, ‘Macho Man’ would be a great follow-up. And I was fascated by the empowerment I felt om Village People, the tle track on their eponymo but album, and an unambiguo ll for gay liberatn that sounds more ak to a prott chant than a chart topper.
LGBTQ+ AFFIRMG THERAPISTS THE VILLAG, FL
Said first three albums (and pecially the first two) rry a surprisgly polil energy; the more popular tracks, such as the eponymo Macho Man, might be vacuo but others – take I Am What I Am, a fiant chant that suggts exactly what you’d expect to suggt – envisn a world which male bodi uld be ee to e together whout Francis was one of the gay mecs the Village People celebrated on their visnary but album (Cred: Alamy)As far as evokg same-sex love go, there was a precent – om dis’s genis, queered sexual posivy was the life blood of the genre, as Peter Shapiro intifi Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Dis. “As the cultural adjunct of the gay pri movement, dis was the embodiment of the pleasure-is-polics ethos of a new generatn of gay culture, a generatn fed up wh police raids, dranian laws and the darkns of the closet, ” he wr.
GAYT PLAC IN FLORIDA FOR 2020
That said, the genre’s lyrics tend to chew more overt polil statements – and the few that did rry an unambiguo msage of gay liberatn didn’t chart well. – Jacqu MoraliIn her dis chronicle Hot Stuff: Dis and the Remakg of Amerin Culture, Alice Echols rells a 1978 Rollg Stone article which Jacqu Morali – the French producer who, alongsi Henri Bolelo and eventual group lear Victor Willis, created the Village People – put forward a manifto of gay visibily: “Morali outed himself, and emphasised that as a homosexual he was mted to endg the cultural visibily of gay men.
The batn of lol alone should immediately tip you off as to who Village People was beg sold to, as any gay man the late 70s would regnise this as a lndry list of US gay mecs.
BETWEEN “GHETTOS”, “SAFE SPAC” AND “GAYTRIFITN”
It knowgly evok the sex-as-polics attu of gay liberatn (“Love the way I please / don’t put no chas on me”), and Victor Willis’ cry of “leather, leather, leather baby” speaks to the era’s emergent gay macho archetype. The song also evok the great gay urban migratn of the 1970s, durg which gays and lbians across the US moved to urban centr – San Francis, Los Angel, New York Cy – en masse.
This theme is seamlsly rried over to In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star), which envisns Hollywood as a rtoonish hub of opulence, universal succs and stardom – an aspiratnal portra for a historilly margalised their reer went on, the Village People creasgly urted the mastream, cludg wh 1980 film Can’t Stop the Mic (Cred: Alamy)For somethg unabashedly homosexual you need only turn to Fire Island, named after the most inic gay hotspot the world, a th strip of land some 50 off the ast of New York Cy, revered for s hookup spots and iastic danc.
And then we e to the tular track Village People, the most emphatilly polil of them all; a percsive chant that lls upon the ‘Village people’, th for gay men, to “take our place the Sun”: “To be ee, ” Village People clare, “We mt be / all for one.