If
only the coffee shop Big Cup had changed its name
to the Luxurious Latte it might have survived. Instead,
the cornerstone of New York's gay Chelsea neighborhood
closed shop earlier this month after the landlord
raised the rent from $26,500 to $21,500. The downfall
of the Big Cup is indicative of dramatic changes taking
place in gayborhoods across America, where artists
are pushed out, as art dealers move in.
From San Francisco's Castro District to Provincetown,
the hard bodied and cool are displaced in favor of
cold hard cash. Gentrification is having a dramatic
impact on everything from the GLBT bar scene to politics.
The question is, can the GLBT Community survive and
thrive without the cocoon of the traditional gay ghetto?
Sure, remnants of the gay ghetto exist, but it is
fast becoming the exclusive playground of the very
wealthy. As prices rise, heterosexual families are
also moving in, further changing the unique character
of these neighborhoods. I have nothing against these
heterosexual families who are often our friends and
allies. But, as the number of heterosexuals increases,
the safety net grows smaller and gay people who once
freely kissed, suddenly have to look over their shoulders.
For example, demographic changes may be affecting
South Beach, a magnificent Miami neighborhood blessed
with bountiful sunshine, gorgeous beaches, and scantily
clad models. I first started club hopping in South
Beach in the late eighties when it was a scary ghost
town infested with prostitutes and drug dealers. The
gay community opened a few nightclubs in old theatres
and by the early nineties the city was booming. For
the next decade, working class gay men flocked to
this Mecca from all over the world. Eventually, prices
skyrocketed as the gay glitterati and sybaritic straights
moved in.
The loss of majority status for gay people has seemingly
emboldened gay bashers. On July 4, according to the
Express Gay News, Carl Zablotny, the gay publisher
of Wire, a Miami Beach gay newspaper, was slugged
in the mouth and knocked unconscious by two thugs
who hurled anti-gay remarks. In January 2003, Earnest
Robinson left a popular gay pub and was shot in the
shoulder by two men who shouted anti-gay slurs. In
another incident, three men attacked and beat a victim
who left a gay bar dressed as a belly dancer.
And, this month Miami Heat basketball star Shaquille
O'Neal called police after he witnessed gay bashers
yell anti-gay slurs and throw a beer bottle at a gay
couple. South Beach is still an incredible place to
be openly gay. The outbreak of recent bashings is
not representative of the community. However, these
attacks do suggest that as our numbers decrease, so
does the safety zone.
The decline of the gay ghetto also may have political
implications. In the past, gay activists had a critical
mass of young people who could be organized to protest
abuses. It is much more difficult to convince older
wealthy gay people to hit the streets chanting slogans.
Meanwhile, the younger, and often angrier, homosexuals
can't be mobilized because they are dispersed in isolated,
lower income neighborhoods. Perhaps, this dynamic
helps explain the tepid response in California this
month following Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger's announcement
that he would veto legislation allowing gay couples
to marry. When Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed pro-gay legislation
in the early 90's, there were riots throughout the
state, particularly in areas with high concentrations
of gay people.
As the ghetto becomes more exclusive, regular gay
and lesbian Americans are forced to search for new
neighborhoods that are inclusive. For gays who enjoyed
living in the traditional gayborhood, moving dramatically
changes their quality of life. Instead of living in
vibrant areas where one can walk to the grocery store
and the gay bar, many gay people today must live in
rundown neighborhoods that are quite far from centers
of gay culture and the convenience of upscale urban
life. For some, this represents a degraded standard
of living and a diminished sense of community.
Those looking for solutions to this conundrum may
be out of luck. History suggests that neighborhoods
are in constant flux and there is little that can
be done to reverse changing market and social forces.
For example, New York's Lower East Side used to be
predominantly Jewish, but that is no longer the case.
Before gay people claimed The Castro in the early
1970's, it was primarily a neighborhood of Irish Catholic
families.
Gay
neighborhoods throughout America are in transition,
however, as old communities disappear, new ones are
born. InBrooklyn, the areas of Williamsburg and Park
Slope have gone from hideous to hip. Back in Manhattan,
the once rundown Hells Kitchen is looking more like
heaven each day for young gay people. Meanwhile, in
Washington, working class GLBT people have moved out
of prohibitively pricey DuPont Circle and have rebuilt
their lives in nearby Logan Circle, which was not
too long ago a place one would not walk at night.
Nothing in life is static. Even as we mourn the blooms
falling off the old roses, we can celebrate the flowering
of new GLBT-friendly communities.
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Originally published on Wednesday September 28, 2005.
