The Demise of Queer Space? Resurgent Gentrification and the Assimilation of LGBT Neighborhoods

Abstract

In the past forty years, gay and lesbian populations have established a visible presence in many cities, but recent gentrification has put pressure on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) neighborhoods. This article uses a case study of the Atlanta metropolitan area to examine the effects of resurgent gentrification on LGBT neighborhoods. The study finds that rising housing values have dispersed the LGBT population, and former LGBT neighborhoods have become less tolerant of LGBT people and the businesses that anchor the LGBT community. The article considers ways that planning practice might seek to preserve LGBT-friendly neighborhoods and the people and institutions that depend on them.

Remaking South Beach: metropolitan gayborhood trajectories under homonormative entrepreneurialism

“…Sydney's Oxford Street, for example, Ruting (2008) argues that a colonization of queer space is a result of displacement and not social assimilation/integration. In a similar vein, Doan and Higgins (2011) posit that the trajectory of Atlanta's gay villages has been tightly linked to broader gentrification processes with urban change eventually leading to the pernicious dispersion of LGBT populations beyond erstwhile consolidated neighborhoods. Moreover, such gayborhood transitions may erode their vibrancy, safety and visibility as territories of sexual alterity and queer freedom from heteronormative constraints (see also Skeggs, 2004 andMoran et al, 2001 for studies of Manchester).…”

The “Pink Pound” in the “Gaybourhood”? Neighbourhood Deprivation and Sexual Orientation in Scotland

“…Historically, the start of this narrative was the exclusion of LGBT households from traditional mortgage finance (Doan & Higgins, 2011). As a result, with other excluded individuals and households, their only residential choice was neighbourhoods with cheap, run-down housing that was black-listed or red-lined by mortgage financiers.…”

“…The latter narrative has informed a number of influential studies on sexual orientation and housing and residential choices, 1 The term "gaybourhood" comes from the nickname for the LGBT-dominated neighbourhood in Philadelphia, USA. However, it has come to be used to describe similar neighbourhoods (Doan and Higgins, 2011) particularly in work from the USA. For example , Black et.al.…”

“…As gentrification pioneers, they invested sweat equity in homes and businesses creating concentrations of households and specific services -bars, shops, bookshops, cafes -servicing this community in an atmosphere where they felt safe; a "gaybourhood" 1 (Doan & Higgins, 2011;Doderer, 2011;Sibalis, 2004).…”

Canaries in the mine? Gay community, consumption and aspiration in neoliberal Washington, DC

“…For example, policies and practices that deny permissions for establishing gay festivals, promote 'family-friendly' events, and develop properties 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 geared to young families with children are central to the goal of deriving maximum profitability from urban spaces. (Doan and Higgins 2011;Mattson 2015;Kentamaa-Squires 2015). Venues in gay neighbourhoods, including those purchased by heterosexual buyers, may seek to attract whatever group has the most spending power and interest in an area at any given point in time (Binnie and Skeggs;Mattson 2015;Kanai and Kentamaa-Squires 2015).…”