Reverg the Gay Village: A Comparative Historil Geography of Urban Change and Planng Toronto and Sydney | SprgerLk

Contents:

• HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI
• THE GAY NEIGHBORHOODS OF NEW ORLEANS
• THE TOP FIVE EMERGG GAY NEIGHBORHOODS OF AMERI
• GAY URBAN ENCLAVE
• REVERG THE GAY VILLAGE: A COMPARATIVE HISTORIL GEOGRAPHY OF URBAN CHANGE AND PLANNG TORONTO AND SYDNEY

HOW GAY CULTURE BLOSSOMED DURG THE ROARG TWENTI

By the mid-1920s, at the height of the Prohibn era, they were attractg as many as 7, 000 people of var rac and social class—gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr and straight alike.

The Begngs of a New Gay World“In the late 19th century, there was an creasgly visible prence of genr-non-nformg men who were engaged sexual relatnships wh other men major Amerin ci, ” says Chad Heap, a profsor of Amerin Studi at Gee Washgton Universy and the thor of Slummg: Sexual and Racial Enunters Amerin Nightlife, 1885-1940. By the 1920s, gay men had tablished a prence Harlem and the bohemian mec of Greenwich Village (as well as the seedier environs of Tim Square), and the cy’s first lbian enclav had appeared Harlem and the Village.

Each gay enclave, wrote Gee Chncey his book Gay New York: Genr, Urban Culture, and the Makg of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, had a different class and ethnic character, cultural style and public reputatn. Gay Life the Jazz AgeAs the Uned Stat entered an era of unprecented enomic growth and prospery the years after World War I, cultural mor loosened and a new spir of sexual eedom reigned.

THE GAY NEIGHBORHOODS OF NEW ORLEANS

”At the same time, lbian and gay characters were beg featured a slew of popular “pulp” novels, songs and on Broadway stag (cludg the ntroversial 1926 play The Captive) and Hollywood—at least prr to 1934, when the motn picture dtry began enforcg censorship guil, known as the Hays Co. In the mid- to late ‘30s, Heap pots out, a wave of sensatnalized sex crim “provoked hysteria about sex crimals, who were often— the md of the public and the md of thori—equated wh gay men. ” By the post-World War II era, a larger cultural shift toward earlier marriage and suburban livg, the advent of TV and the anti-homosexualy csas champned by Joseph McCarthy would help ph the flowerg of gay culture reprented by the Pansy Craze firmly to the natn’s rear-view mirror.

It was home to a handful of gay bars like The Eagle and The Spike, as well as one of the first known gay dance clubs, Seventeenth Saloon, where an eclectic range of gay men mgled. Hell’s Kchen was rough around the edg, but paratively cheaper and already settled by a small muny of gay artists, dancers, and performers nsirg s close proximy to the Theater District. Two relatively unknown gay bars were slgg cktails and blastg show tun and, soon enough, the unr-the-radar Hell’s Kchen somewhat rivaled Chelsea, boastg more than a dozen gay bar opengs wh the past 15 years, and beg home to a thrivg LGBT muny.

Like Chelsea and Hell’s Kchen, many distctive neighborhoods across Ameri have served as a bastn for gay men and women, providg a safe space and forward-thkg muny sce the morn gay movement began. The Castro San Francis, Wt Hollywood Los Angel, the French Quarter New Orleans, Midtown Atlanta, and the South End of Boston are natnally known, trendsettg, and predomately gay neighborhoods that celebrate gay culture and liftyle.

THE TOP FIVE EMERGG GAY NEIGHBORHOODS OF AMERI

As the world turns, other neighborhoods grow wh gay pri, fueled by progrsive men and women seekg affordable rent, bigger spac, a sense of muny, and overall nvenience, both for livg and bs. The emergg neighborhoods also give gay travelers plenty more to explore when visg their favore ci, and there’s nothg more excg than immersg the next great gay neighborhood when ’s g to s own.

GAY URBAN ENCLAVE

We traveled the untry to fd the most excg, emergg neighborhoods that are on the brk of natnal gay fame thanks to an flux of LGBT rints and bs, outstandg qualy of life, and, most importantly, a welg muny. The Mile High Cy hosted one of the first pri paras the USA, gay anizatns (like The Colorado Gay Roo Associatn) were thrivg the early 80s, was one of the first municipali to adopt an anti-discrimatn policy 1990, and PriFt ranks as one of the largt gay pri week- ends Ameri wh more than 350, 000 people celebratg.

Today, the gays are quietly migratg north to the burgeong River North (RiNo) Art District neighborhoods, the hottt new area Denver wh recently erected ndos and lofts, sprawlg parks, trendy new bs, and art galleri mixed wh historic wareho and factori. Openly gay Utah State Senator Jim Dabakis, who -found the Utah Pri Center and Equaly Utah, was appoted to office December 2012, and Jackie Biskupsi was sworn as Salt Lake Cy’s first openly gay mayor January 2016.

On The Marlama’s ial “gay-trifitn, ” lols would pot their fger to Club JAM, a gay bar that opened 2007 and first planted LGBT roots the neighborhood, “When Club JAM opened 2007, was the first domo that got thgs movg the Marmala neighborhood, ” says club owner and young entreprenr Jason Olsen.

REVERG THE GAY VILLAGE: A COMPARATIVE HISTORIL GEOGRAPHY OF URBAN CHANGE AND PLANNG TORONTO AND SYDNEY

The Marlama is close to other gay hot spots, rent is cheap, there is easy accs to major eeways and roads, and ’s nveniently loted near downtown, where visors n stay at gay-iendly hotels like Kimpton Hotel Mona Salt Lake Cy, which is close to the hood.

While groups of gay men and lbians have sought livg spac anized around sexual inty for a long time, neighborhoods actively regnized as “gayborhoods” by others is somethg arguably more recent. In dog so, we ntribute to the ongog bat about the nature, characteristics, and implitns of the shiftg fortun of some tradnal gay villag the Global beg by discsg geographil scholarship on the emergence of gay villag the Global North wh an emphasis on ntemporary lerature tailg the perceived “cle” of some longstandg gay villag, cludg those Toronto and Sydney. Throughout, the acronym LGBT (lbian, gay, bisexual, trans) refers to inti grouped together to reflect llective terts and muny as genred and sexual mori, while queer not a ntemporary moment when some dividuals reject a genred and sexual specificy but still posn themselv wh non-normative genr and sexual unrstandgs—a posng reflected recent urban chang.

2 Historil Geographi of Gay Villag: Segregatn and IntegratnA substantial body of scholarship exam the emergence and velopment of gay villag the Global North the perd followg World War II. This rearch highlights the domant role that gay men (maly whe and middle-class) played the velopment and growth of gay villag, ially through their appropriatn of plac for safety and support to their e of the neighborhoods for polil, social, and enomic secury and activism (Castells 1983; Chncey 1994; Doan and Higgs 2011; Gorman-Murray and Wat 2009; Knopp 1990; Lewis 2012; Nash 2006). Simultaneoly, lbians and queer women also habed urban lotns and neighborhoods and utilized gay village spac, albe distctive and ls visible ways (Adler and Brenner 1992; Nast 2002; Podmore 2001, 2013; Rothenberg 1995; Valente 1993, 1996).

The HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s helped cement villag as hubs of LGBT life, and plac such as Toronto and Sydney they provid re servic cludg hospice re, outreach, health tn, and unselg servic (Ksman 1996; Warner 2002; Willett 2000a; Wotherspoon 1991) the 1980s, gay villag were creasgly ught up broar urban social and enomic procs that saw them rporated, through the neoliberal policy iativ of the entreprenrial cy, to creasgly modified and nsumable urban landsp (Bell and Bnie 2002; Bnie 2000; Bnie and Skeggs 2004; Visser 2008).

This amg of a “homonormative polic” has prompted some to argue that we nnot unrstand this to be a universal or monolhic rult and that we need to attend to the “difference, unevenns and geographil specificy” of genred and sexual relatns the gay village and beyond (Brown 2009: 1498) recent scholarship suggts, ntemporary gay villag, cludg those Toronto and Sydney, are experiencg forms of “gayg” wh broar polil, social, and enomic procs at work many Global North ci (Colls 2004; Rutg 2008; Gorman-Murray and Wat 2009; Nash 2013a; Visser 2013).

Part of this procs is the modifitn of gay villag as tourist venu, as well as shoppg and entertament districts, which has attracted a wi variety of nsumers and bs not necsarily intifyg as LGBT.

In both Canada and Atralia, legislative and social regnn of LGBT people has rulted their creasg visibily a broad range of lotns beyond the gay village plac unrstood to be “gay iendly. ” While many argue this new visibily is only available to certa normatively genred and sexualized gays and lbians, others suggt the spatial chang reflect greater acceptance of sexual and genred difference, as well as a growg social hn across a wi variety of neighborhoods (Ghaziani 2021; Gorman-Murray and Wat 2009; Nash 2013a; Visser 2013). Neverthels, as scholars argue, while some gays and lbians are able to fully tegrate to the mastream, others ntue to be margalized as “queer, ” that is, as those livg outsi of the homonormative liftyl supported by legislative and social change (Bnie 2004; Ghaziani 2011; see also Duggan 2003; Richardson 2005) lerature also suggts that gay villag are cle bee of creased ter and social media e (Mil 2021), allowg LGBT and queer dividuals to fd other like-md dividuals whout the need for exprsly LGBT and queer spac such as gay villag (Mil 2021; Mowlaboc 2010; Nash and Gorman-Murray 2019a; Usher and Morrison 2010).