Abstract
Gay neighborhoods across the United States are de-concentrating in today’s so-called “post-gay” era as sexual minorities assimilate into the mainstream and disperse across the city. This context creates a problem of measurement. If by “culture” we mean to say a particular way of life of a group or subgroup of people like sexual minorities, and if that way of life is blending with other aspects of the metropolis, then how can we detect distinct urban sexual cultures? In this article, I use 125 interviews with Chicago residents to propose a two-pronged strategy. First, gay neighborhoods continue to house anchor institutions, despite ongoing residential out-migrations. These are the primary engines of community building, and they locate the material culture of a group in a specific place. Commemorations serve as a second indicator for a culture, and they too put meanings into form. Although it is a fact of city life that all neighborhoods change, anchors and commemorations are analytic devices that scholars can use to observe urban sexual cultures. More generally, they provide a framework for how to measure the shifting geographic profile of a historically stigmatized group as it experiences positive change in public opinion.
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Notes
“Culture Clash: Boystown Shifting as More Families Move In,” RedEye, December 10, 2007, p. 6.
Collard references: “New Way of Being,” by James Collard. New York Times, June 21, 1998; and “Leaving the Gay Ghetto,” by James Collard. Newsweek, August 17, 1998, p. 53. In his Newsweek piece, Collard credits Burston with coining the term post-gay.
“A Gay Old Time,” by Jason Heidemann. Time Out Chicago, April 14, 2010: http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-culture/gay-lesbian/78369/a-gay-old-time, accessed May 26, 2012.
www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/article.php?AID=31459, accessed March 7, 2012.
“Americans’ Acceptance of Gay Relations Crosses 50 % Threshold,” by Lydia Saad. www.gallup.com/poll/135764/Americans-Acceptance-Gay-Relations-Crosses-Threshold.aspx, accessed May 25, 2010. CNN poll: “Gay Marriage Opponents Now in Minority,” by Nate Silver. http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/gay-marriage-opponents-now-in-minority/, accessed April 25, 2012. Gallup results: www.gallup.com/poll/1651/gay-lesbian-rights.aspx, accessed November 21, 2012. Pew poll: www.people-press.org/2012/11/09/behind-gay-marriage-momentum-regional-gaps-persist/ and www.socwomen.org/web/media/press-releases/3683-kazyakgenderasoc-.html, accessed December 11, 2012.
For more on the history of gay migration patterns in the city of Chicago, see (Papadopoulos 2005).
“SF Gay History Museum Finds Home, Identity,” by Jessica Kwong. San Francisco Chronicle, January 12, 2011, p. C-1. See: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/12/BAK81H7L8I.DTL, accessed May 6, 2011.
Frank Kameny Way: “‘Kameny Way’ Ceremony Highlights Capital Pride Events,” by Lou Chibbaro Jr. Washington Blade, June 8, 2010: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2010/06/08/%E2%80%98kameny-way%E2%80%99-ceremony-highlights-capital-pride-events/, accessed May 9, 2011. See also (Greene 2011). Harvey Milk Street in San Diego: http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/apr/11/sd-harvey-milk/, accessed June 25, 2013. June as Pride Month: see the White House press release, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2009,” June 1, 2009, Office of the Press Secretary: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-LGBT-Pride-Month/, accessed May 9, 2011. Stonewall Inn as a historic landmark: “Stonewall, Gay Bar That Made History: Is Made a Landmark,” by David W. Dunlap. New York Times, June 26, 1999, p. 1: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/26/nyregion/stonewall-gay-bar-that-made-history-is-made-a-landmark.html, accessed May 9, 2011. Christopher Park: see the website of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation: http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/M012/highlights/7714 and http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/M012/highlights/10767, accessed May 9, 2011.
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Acknowledgments
This article was inspired by a Measuring Culture conference that John Mohr and I organized at the University of British Columbia in October 2012. The Vancouver gathering was generously funded by the UBC Department of Sociology (special thanks to Neil Guppy); a Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Seed Fund Grant from the UBC Dean of the College of Arts (special thanks to Gage Averill); an HSS Symposium Grant; and a grant from the UBC Vice President Research and International (special thanks to Ralph Matthews). I am grateful for the collective insights of conference attendees: Chris Bail, Neil Gross, Jenn Lena, Omar Lizardo, Terry McDonnell (a special thanks to him for his comments on an earlier draft), Ashley Mears, Ann Mische, John Mohr, Steve Vaisey, and Fred Wherry (a special thanks to Fred, as well, for providing comments on an earlier draft). Finally, I would like express my gratitude to the Princeton Society of Fellows (and the Fund for Reunion/Princeton Bisexual, Transgendered, Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association). This article is part of a book project that I developed during my time as a fellow. I would not have been able to conduct the interviews that I reported here without the financial support of Princeton University’s Committee on Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
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Ghaziani, A. Measuring urban sexual cultures. Theor Soc 43, 371–393 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-014-9225-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-014-9225-4