Philalphia was first cy to have a gayborhood | PhillyVoice

Contents:

• SEATTLE NEXT GAY GHETTO
• GAY GHETTO
• YOUNG THUG AND FRIENDS CGHT WATCHG GAY FREAKY MOVI IN STUD
• YBOR CY – TAMPA’S GAY GHETTO
• GAY MALE PORNOGRAPHIC MOVI, CIR 1970-1990 COLLECTN NUMBER: 7637
• PHILALPHIA WAS LIKELY FIRST CY TO HAVE A GAYBORHOOD
• STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS
• ‘PUMPG’ IS DANGERO NEW FAD AMONG GAY MEN
• HOW TO GET A MAN (FOR GAY MEN)
• GAY GHETTOS, HOMOSEXUAL HAVENS OR DISCRIMATORY WOKE NONSENSE? BRA’S FIRST LGBT-ONLY HOG PLEX GET GREEN LIGHT

SEATTLE NEXT GAY GHETTO

Known as the “gay ghetto” between the 1930s and 1960s, was one of the few urban areas Ameri where trans people uld be “out” wh a relatively rced risk of vlence. Lucky for gay/bi men, there are que a number of who know exactly how that feels. It seems like every gay guy out there is a bottom, and when you thk you've met someone who's fely a He too is a bottom.

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.

The clost most gays and lbians ever e to fdg a promised land is movg to the Gay Ghetto -- an urban neighborhood that is populated by, and reasonably tolerat, a large number of queers.

GAY GHETTO

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.

The social ntract that kept young queer migrants pourg to gay ghettos has been ptured; while the average Capol Hill apartment rented for $449 1990, go for $723 now. 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. Wh young queers forced to look elsewhere for hog, first-wave gay ghettos are on the cle, sapped of the energy and sex appeal of queer youngsters.

Queers set out, like herds of faaabulo ribou, search of the next gay ghetto.

YOUNG THUG AND FRIENDS CGHT WATCHG GAY FREAKY MOVI IN STUD

All over the Uned Stat, young gays and lbians priced out of tablished gay ghettos are lonizg new neighborhoods, seekg out cheap rents and openg trendy rtrants. While 's clear that Seattle's young queers are turng away om Capol Hill, 's not clear which Seattle neighborhood will emerge as Seattle's next big gay ghetto.

In orr to facilate the mass migratn of Seattle's low-e and recently arrived queer migrants, we sent three wrers to three potential new gay ghettos. 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). Which fortunate neighborhood will emerge as Seattle's new gay ghetto?

YBOR CY – TAMPA’S GAY GHETTO

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.

GAY MALE PORNOGRAPHIC MOVI, CIR 1970-1990 COLLECTN NUMBER: 7637

In termg the potential of Wt Seattle as Seattle's new gay ghetto, many factors e to play.

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.

PHILALPHIA WAS LIKELY FIRST CY TO HAVE A GAYBORHOOD

One of the most fundamental elements of any te gay ghetto is the prence of at least one primarily gay waterg hole and/or dance spot.

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.

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.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTCTNS FOR SHOOTG YOUR SHOT WH GAY GUYS

This area uld nceivably give birth to a world-class gay dance club or even a sex club. Throw a Rudy's Barber Shop, a ffee shop, and a few artsy typ, and Wt Seattle would have the urban-y chic that gays love so much. I ntacted several of what might be nsired gay-iendly bs Wt Seattle and asked how they would rpond should their neighborhood sudnly turn pk.

" Would Ristorante Rigazzi wele a gay dis or even a sex club next door? 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.

's Dupont Circle, Brooklyn's lbian-centric Park Slope, Manhattan's gay-centric East Village, and ultimately, Seattle's Capol Hill.

‘PUMPG’ IS DANGERO NEW FAD AMONG GAY MEN

Gay neighborhoods are most val when they're safe harbors om the storm. In ci that are a ltle more sexually tegrated, like Seattle, our gay neighborhoods functn ls as physil necsi than cultural havens.

Bee gay culture self is no monolh, a gay neighborhood needs to serve all sorts of folks. When you're a ltle olr, you're happy to have a cent grocery store (wh upon-clutchg homos wanrg the aisl) and a florist wh the sense not to stock rnatns. But evably, jt as a gay neighborhood attas the peak mix of salons wh aromatherapy neck massage centers, f wh sexy baristas, and newsstands that rry Wallpaper, the Para of Idts begs.

HOW TO GET A MAN (FOR GAY MEN)

" 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. It is said that "where there is h goat chee and live pan flute mic, there shall be homosexuals. The almost total absence of bars is appallg, sure, but if the homo opens the bs, the homo mak the money -- am I right?

-- Mary Martone BALLARD Average Rent for Stud Apartment: $532 Potential Gay Dance Club: The Old Pequliar Potential Public Sex Environment: Railroad tracks at far end of Goln Garns Park Average Age of Rints: 43 mage this scenar: Three gay men are kidnapped om ont of the Starbucks at Broadway and Republin on Capol Hill.

Starbucks, Seattle's Bt Coffee, an archecturally signifint Seafirst Bank, Ta Del Mar, Payls Sho, flower shops, thrift shops, send-hand cloth, a greasy 24-hour rtrant -- abandoned Ballard, our gay kidnap victims may be far om home, but they quickly feel right at home. Not only do Ballard's ma drag feature many of the same shops and f as Capol Hill's Broadway, but Ballard has many gay-iendly ameni that gay-iendly Broadway sorely lacks. In fact, walkg around Ballard, I got the distct imprsn that wants to be Seattle's new gay ghetto -- and wants bad.

GAY GHETTOS, HOMOSEXUAL HAVENS OR DISCRIMATORY WOKE NONSENSE? BRA’S FIRST LGBT-ONLY HOG PLEX GET GREEN LIGHT

Nathan Cole at the Ballard Chamber of Commerce assured me that while Ballard wel people of all rac, creeds, lors, and sexual tast, the neighborhood isn't tryg to bee the new gay ghetto.

I know there are plenty of gay people who live here, but I'm not sure will ever be the gay neighborhood. " But if Ballard isn't tryg to bee Seattle's new gay ghetto, how else do one expla the posh new health club that opened the old Backstage space? Open for 18 months now, Ballard Health Club not only boasts an imprsive weight room and all the latt rd equipment, but two elements that no health club hopg to attract gay and lbian clientele n be whout: attractive personal traers and an image-the-erotic-possibili dry sna each locker room.

"I know we have members who are gay, and they're jt as fortable here as any other club members. " While BHC wel gay members (at $35 a month), they're not terted beg an exclively gay gym along the l of the late, great Body Ntil or the current, y World Gym at the Conventn Center.