they have to take you in.”
— Robert Frost
The straight takeover of San Francisco was made all too clear last month when Castro Street had to cancel its annual Halloween parade.
And if you examine the photo at left you’ll understand why. Yes, it’s a gay bar. And yes, it’s crammed wall-to wall with straight people
“The Glindas, gladiators and harem boys of the Castro — along with untold numbers who plan to dress up as Senator Larry E. Craig, this year’s camp celebrity — will be celebrating behind closed doors,” reported the New York Times, citing the decision to disband the parade as a wrenching moment of “soul-searching” that struck “a blow at the heart of neighborhood identity.”
It is a decision that is coming to symbolize the dismantling of the great gay ghettos throughout America — what the press used to call “Gay Meccas,” those insular enclaves where men could walk down the street carelessly holding hands, or slobber over each other in the hellish light coming from some leather bar as they made out on the sidewalk. (A world lovingly imagined — but wildly, cartoonishly overdrawn — in the American version of Queer as Folk, below)
Halloween, with its theatrical flourishes and transgender play, was always the occasion for special events in Gay Meccas. Certainly free-loving San Francisco held one of the raunchiest.
“The once-exuberant street party, a symbol of sexual liberation since 1979, has in recent years become a Nightmare on Castro Street,” writes the Times, “drawing as many as 200,000 people, many of them costumeless outsiders, and there has been talk of moving it outside the district because of increasing violence. Last year, nine people were wounded when a gunman opened fire at the celebration.”
But there was more to the abandonment of the parade than the influx of strangers and crime onto the pacific streets where Harvey Milk once ran a camera store — streets that now sport a Pottery Barn and baby strollers. A mass emigration is underway. Citing the AIDS epidemic which decimated the community’s first gay pioneers, freeing up once leaky “railroad-car” flats and gingerbread fixer-uppers to real estate speculators, the paper notes:
There has been a notable shift of gravity from the Castro, with young gay men and lesbians fanning out into less-expensive neighborhoods like Mission Dolores and the Outer Sunset, and farther away to Marin and Alameda Counties, “mirroring national trends where you are seeing same-sex couples becoming less urban, even as the population become slightly more urban,” said Gary J. Gates, a demographer and senior research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“Twenty years ago, if you were gay and lived in rural Kansas,” Gates explained, “you went to San Francisco or New York. Now you can just go to Kansas City.”
Can this really be true? Is San Francisco over? Is West Hollywood so very 10 years ago? Has Key West yielded to …Virginia Beach!
Yes, asserts the Times, basing its certainly on a recent study of the demographic migrations of same-sex couples. Coit Tower, the Hollywood Sign, the beaches of Fort Lauderdale — these are no longer gay landmarks of home for the young and the restless.
Think instead — sit, please if you’re standing, the cabin is about to lose pressure — El Paso, Texas! Louisville, Kentucky. Witchita, Whatsamatterwith Kansas!
Some insights from the Times:
“The Castro, and to a lesser extent the West Village, was where you went to express yourself,” said Don F. Reuter, a New York author who is researching a book on the rise and fall of gay neighborhoods. “Claiming physical territory was a powerful act. But the gay neighborhood is becoming a past-tense idea.”
Also this:
The Castro remains a top tourist destination for gay and lesbian visitors. But Joe D’Alessandro, president and C.E.O. of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, and a gay parent who lives in the Castro, predicted that eventually the neighborhood would go the way of North Beach, “still a historic Italian neighborhood though Italians don’t necessarily live there anymore.”
Conclusion: The big, centralized Gay Mecca has served its purpose . It is, we are told by the movement of gay populations, no longer necessary.
And so, for many of us of a certain age, of a certain vintage found no more, though we were visitors only to that fog-bound homeland by the bay, the abandonment of the Halloween parade in San Francisco is, like a last wave goodbye, a wenching moment of soul searching.
Indeed. Surely the death of the Great Gay Ghettos requires a moment of silence, as well
Have we come at last to that longed-for golden age when gayness stops being a distinct identity, in need of comfort zones, those seedy, insular ghettos on the rusty outskirts of dead industrial centers, across the tracks, on the shady side of town?
Is this what all the sprucing up and gaying up has bought us: a homogenized, gentrified bit of corporate real estate that no 20-something can actually afford, the new “gayborhood,” an amalgam of big-ticket condo and rainbow-flagged shopping mall?
Or will there always be a “San Francisco” somewhere, just like they’ll always be a — well, let Sister Roma tell you in this, our favorite insight from the the Times piece.
On a recent Saturday, Sister Roma, a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an activist coterie of drag queens, sashayed down Castro Street in heavy eye shadow and a gold lamé top. Though she looked well prepared for Halloween, she said she planned to be in hiding that night.
She wasn’t feeling too deprived, however.
“Sweetie,” she said, “every day is Halloween in the Castro.”
*sigh*
Now I’m going to have to re-watch Queer as Folk and snivel into my wine glass. Salut.
I think it’s definitely gentrification– aka the IKEA effect– that’s killing off sectors like this. Unless you’re a wealthy doctor, dentist, lawyer, real estate agent, etc., you can’t afford to live in once-happening urban neighborhoods. They’ve become gated communities for the upwardly mobile. It’s certainly happened to New York, which has become more like “Metropolis” with each passing year. The very people who originated and cultivated the areas’ identities are pushed out to make room for the waves of yuppies with their generic coffee klatches and endless boulevards of designer sunglass boutiques.
Makes me long for the days of the French Revolution.
I’m not sure why or if this trend surprises too many people who actually sit down and think about it. I went to Folsom for the first time this year and it was overrun by straight folks and those without the garb - in sweaters pushing baby carriages. I will say, I was a bit disappointed to see a Pottery Barn on the Castro, but isn’t this just the nature of things as a city grows and changes? Before the gay people in the Castro, there were probably people that were forced out by them, and the cycle continues…
It’s always been a conceit of people in New York, Los Angeles, and San Fran that if you didn’t live there, then you less than them and hardly mattered in the scheme of things. Sure, it’s teaming with things to do, people to see, places to be seen at - but as exactly as you pointed out - does it really matter? I’m here now, but I’m not seeing what was so important or vital.
The most foolish thing I could have done was move from the midwest to a bigger city where the weather was perfect. You take a look at “gay-borhoods” in any city and they are either former shells of their once amazing selves or there are people out there just romanticizing the past. The lie we’ve been told of a great gleaming gay Mecca has long past. It’s ok once in a while, but soaking in it 24/7? Nah. I’d rather live in a mixed neighborhood with my own space, regarding my odd neighbors with the same curiosity they give me.
There are days where I miss Kansas City very much.
well I live in New York and the gry is correct in their conclusions. Who can afford to live in the village anymore, hell who but the richest 3 percent lives in Manhattan anymore.
The relocation of Halloween from Polk Strasse to Castro was frequently reviled as it had been a “city” celebration AND Gay High Holiday — which only the great expanse of Polk Strasse could accommodate (and then Civic Center could have its balls).
The Mecca is still Mecca, but the Dorothy’s and her sisters’ friends now number in the hundred thousands — unlike the 1970s several thousand. The Castro is just not equipped to handle that many people — and the overflow onto Market Street alienates everyone — from public transit, a major arterial, and then Newsom decided to detox the party and charge admission to its own event.
Apparently our “Ted Haggard” Mayor was re-elected tonight, and has four more years to really screw up the city. He’s ruined nearly everything Willie Brown did not abscond — and not even twelve months was enough time for the Mayor and the district supervisor to act to relocate. Your report properly reflects the FAILURE.
It happens daily, but when it affects basic city traditions, maybe our airhead “pretty boy” mayor needs to use the head on his shoulders, not the one between his legs, dry out from his alcoholic stupors, and stop porking friends’ wives on city’s dime — and be a politician UNLIKE Larry Craig with all the virtues of the Reverend Ted Haggard.
But he’s the Twisted Sisters’ Lap Boy, so the Machine keeps is denizens dull.
Drub –
The Eureka Valley Merchants Ass’n fought like hell to keep Pottery Barn out. Walgreens acquisition of Star was inevitable, but Noah’s Bagel, McDonald’s, etc. etc. One of the Castro Village’s greatest assets is its intimacy - basically an Oz in two by two blocks. A “gay” campground to frolic and change pace without going too far. We succeeded through the Eighties, but alas . . . .
But we must bear in mind that the Castro became the “Castro” because it was a cheap, dilapidated Irish ghetto with cheap rents and lots of drinking establishments. Contrary to popular belief, the gay density of 94114, while the highest in the world, has always had a substantial straight population all along, and very few properties in the Castro (vis-a-vis “businesses”) are gay-owned. But like any upgraded neighborhood — with great weather and location — is vulnerable to the highest bidder.
People are always Pro Halloween celebrations until it’s announced that they will be hosting it and it’s in front of their home. There is no law saying A Halloween party has to be in the Castro or that the city has to bankroll it. The bar owners get a 100% free ride paid for by the City of SF. (They even funded a phony grass roots “ Citizens for Halloween”.) Out of control alcohol has ruined Halloween and it is threatening to ruin what’s left of Castro nightlife. Every night the Castro hosts loud-mouthed drunks yelling at each other and into their cell phones. Lots of these folks aren’t just inebriated but blind drunk and barely walking upright. Most of these drunks don’t even live in the Castro so it’s easy for them to come in and trash the place. They won’t be back until after their mess has been cleaned up. The most popular restaurants serve the greasiest cheapest food.
I’ve lived in L.A. my whole life and I can’t think of anything more undesirable than moving to West Hollywood. Like Drub, I prefer living in a mixed area–you know, the real world. I’ve always found the idea of concentrating droves of people of any one demographic into a single neighborhood quite dangerous. It’s natural and inevitable, but far too artificial for my taste. Having said that, it is a shame to see something so well-loved fall by the wayside. I haven’t gone to the Halloween party in WeHo in ages, basically since the straights invaded and turned it into one big frat party with some funny queens to laugh at.
It’s initially a surprise to see so few gay couples in those communities; aren’t there like 90,000 gay people in San Franciso? If only 16,000 are in relationships, that doesn’t bode well for the chances of guys like me, who like the idea of stable family life.
The answer is that, I guess, once you are in a lasting relationship, you are more likely to move out of the gay ghetto into a liberal suburb somewhere. Maybe the married gay men from San Franciso end up in San Jose or Berkeley? I’d probably end up in a place like Boulder, Colorado, where I live now, rather than Denver or Seattle, which is where I’ll be in the meantime (once I finish school) while I’m young and single.
Its sad that the gay ghetto is going away, because that’s good for some people. I really prefer a mixed crowd, though. I have far more in common with someone who is interested in, say, writing, regardless of sexual orientation, than I do with a group of guys who are all gay. I don’t think the gay ghetto would ever be right for me. I think it’s a sign of a more tolerant society.
Yes, WeHo or Castro or the Village… they are so interchangeable to me with the masses having certain over-generalized, stereotypical characteristics. If anything, ghettos like these are repellent to anyone over a certain IQ or Real Hobbies™. It’s hard enough venturing into Hillcrest to go grocery shopping as you can’t swing a cat without hittin’ a ‘Mo.
I just think it’s a bit overdone. Do we all really have to live in the same place? And to what effect? Why? Are we that insecure? Sure, you have straights coming into these neighborhoods too - no doubt about it. They enjoy a certain vibe that walking in an urban environment like this brings to them, while checking out which places would make better homes for them.
The part I don’t understand is the snit gay people get up in arms about invasions of their neighborhoods, claiming it as “their space” when, just as The Gay Species points out, “Castro… was a cheap, dilapidated Irish ghetto with cheap rents and lots of drinking establishments” before it gained it’s present charm and notability.
I heard about the shooting when I was visiting recently, not even knowing there were droves of people more obnoxious that those Critical Mass jerks roaming the ‘hood on All Hallow’s Eve. Which is just another reason to stay home (like on New Year’s Eve, other holidays, or something as simple as seeing a movie in a movie theatre) as those nights are for amateurs out for a thrill.
But then again, the older I get, the less tolerant I am toward people only too happy to invade your personal space, oblivious to the fact that you too are there to enjoy yourself, and who can’t seem to function without killing any fun to be had by inappropriate mobile phone usage.
Maybe a remote island or a mountaintop retreat surrounded by a moat filled with sharks with frikkin’ lasers is in my near future? *places pinky in mouth*
Don’t forget that the internet has also eroded the physical gay ghetto as well. A lot of the appeal of gay villages, I think, was that they offered places for gay men to find community, make friends with whom they could relate, and of course, meet (lots of) men for sex. But now, along with a more tolerant society and downtown gentrification, online chat rooms and hook-up sites have drained much of the urgency out of having to go out and encounter strangers in person in order to meet people.
I think that a bigger loss than the all-weekend party that is/was the gay ghetto is the decline of those chance encounters and unexpected events that occur in public that make life—urban life especially—far more interesting and even beautiful.
I’m glad all you kids think the gay neighborhood is so irrelevant, but I’d like to tell you what it meant to me and my generation. I’m going to be 60 in a month or so, and I remember when the “gay ghetto” was really Gay Mecca, as this article correctly calls it.
1. It was a place where you could walk down the street and openly look at the other guys and feel none of them would be grossed out or become hostile if you smiled at them. Where you could check out their…um, “goods” and find they were doing the same to you, and it was no big deal, wasn’t even particularly serious, just fun and spontaneous. I guess that’s the word I’m looking for. The gay ghetto was a place where you could be spontaneous.
2. It was a place where you could be silly and dizzy and nellie with your friends on the street and not catch sidelong glances from passerbys like you were some virus from outer space.
3.It was a place where you could kiss your boyfriend goodbye at the bus stop as you both went to work in the morning.
4.It was a place when at some point during the gay pride parade — like the time I saw two lesbians marching who had fought a legal case somewhere in the Midwest that prevented the healthy one from taking care of the sick one because they weren’t legally linked and the sick gal’s family had jurisdiction and wanted the dyke lover barred — a place where when things turned serious in the gay parade, you felt your heart would break from the injustice of it, and at the same time became filled with outrage, and then finally felt waves of love for the strangers around you because you knew that most everyone felt the same powerful wash of emotions.
There is strength in numbers, my friends. For good or ill, we are tribal people, family-creating people whose lives are enriched, not narrowed, by being around others from our tribe.
Until you can walk down the street with your boyfriend or establish some sort of legality to your civil union so no one can pull a fast one on “the queer” left out in the waiting room, until that kind of “America for All” is a reality, the gay ghetto will continue to serve a good and necessary purpose.
Old Guy, the point of the article is that kind of “gay ghetto” you’re remembering is already gone. What we have now is “gayborhoods” — “an amalgam of big-ticket condos and rainbow-flagged shopping malls.”
No, riverboy, the gay ghetto is not gone, it’s just moved on to other, more affordable, more local places. That I think is the message of the article and a lot of the comments here.
It’s certainly a real estate issue. As others have pointed out here, the nicer the place, the more it’s going to cost to live there, and the more likely it’s going to be that rich folk and the big cookie-cutter chains start moving in as they’re the ones who can afford it. I lived in SF in the early 90s, in a studio apartment, and the rent was $1,000.00 a month. I can’t imagine what it must be like now (even though I’m in San Jose and things aren’t cheap here, either).
The world is getting smaller and the Castro Halloween Party just got too big. Last month, a friend from Denmark asked me if I was going this year; she’d heard about the legendary event on the internet. Like the house party in high school: someone’s folks are out of town for the weekend, word gets out, and before you know it, there’s a free-for-all, in this case, idiots with guns, idiots who’ve had way too much to drink, and idiots looking for trouble. The cops come in and shut everything down, and the ones who only wanted a fun time are left wondering how things got so out of hand.
Old Guy:
Maybe I should have been clearer in my respect for the fact that these neighborhoods were once (and to some, still are) a necessary, life-giving oasis in a world that just didn’t get it. I give full props to those who trod before me and paved the way I now walk on, which is one where my life is possible in the bland old suburbs. I never really was one for public displays of affection (by queens or breeders) anyway–get a room, for godsakes!
And again, I fully appreciate the fact that I live in a world capital (Los Angeles) where the suburbs aren’t prone to lynch mobs. I’ve always felt for those who live is less tolerant red state communities and I can see the attraction for someone just coming out and moving to the Big City. Alas, from what I’ve seen, Time in these places only proves to be a soul-sucking experience and most of them end up moving out with us anyways.
Hold-on folks. The Castro Village is vibrantly rebounding as more and more people are abandoning cyberspace and opting to “kick the tires” before taking it for a spin. I could not be more excited by this turn of events (PlanetOut’s reportage to the contrary.) I’m with “Old Guy” 100%. We need community, and it must be a “physical, visible” community. Cyberspace is not a substitute.
I am a complete assimilationist and have done much to incorporate various niches into whole cloth. But as much as assimilation is good and healthy for everyone, our distinctiveness also needs its space and freedom to express itself among kindred spirits. Where else does one find fan dancers? Two-stepping?
San Francisco has gone from numerous gay venues to basically two: the Castro and the Folsom (Polk Street, a possible third). For our population and for tourists, this is woefully inadequate. One of the joys of being gay is our youthful existence as a party animal, dancing together, socializing, cruisin, etc. Some of my most enjoyable moments are in those “community” situations, not just satisifying the libido.
The thrill of having danced at the Cabaret, Rendevous, Oil Can Harry’s, Studio One, Mindshaft, and Trocadero is in having celebrated gay community. It’s palpable; physical; tangible; actual. I still vividly remember the Mindshaft using Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” for last-call, and a chorus of male voices could not resist singing along, hugging, flirting, shirtless, and just exuberant to be alive and having fun. We’ve come out; now we need to come to terms. But let’s have fun doing it!
Gays are an integral part of the social fabric, but we are also very special social animals within the human race, but like any other “clan” or “tribe” we need association, we need community with each other, even if it is only to eyeball our surroundings and know we are not alone. Too many guys today are indeed alone. Oh, they order up a trick online, do the deed, and are left alone with nothing else to do.
What does one do in the interim: Search for another? Chat room for hours? Gym? No! Dance! Party! Socialize! Tricycle races! Baseball teams! Rolerskate! “Kick some tires.”
Hi what the hell r u people talking about gay ghetto? hmmmm sounds cool!….im gonna spread my azz cheeks at u!!!! lol :
The cool thing about living in a gay “mecca” is that being gay is much less of an issue for my partner and myself than it would be if we were to live in the burbs.
People don’t “need” to live in a gay neighborhood (or in our case, town), but many like the idea of having their relationships and families be part of the mainstream. In Key West, we can walk down the street holding hands with each other and it is not an issue, good or bad, and certainly not a statement of any sort.
Our city commissioner is openly gay (in that, her partner was working on the campaign trail with her and most people know) and it never came up during the campaign. She defeated an incumbent with 68% of the vote. There is currently another gay person on the commission also.
All of Key West’s gay guesthouses are having their best occupancy rates in years, so there is obviously a demand for “gay vacations.” If the NY Times is right and gay people do not want to live in gayborhoods, it was incorrect in implying that the idea of a gay community is disappearing. Gay media and blogs are proliferating, as well as gay cruises. A new five-star gay resort recently opened in Brazil.
My impression, from the NYT article as well as from comments on blogs concerning this topic is that there are two distinct perspectives:
1. Gay people (especially men) who move to the suburbs or who do not or have not lived in an urban area or resort town with a higher concentration of gay people seem to have the impression that such places are all about being gay, that certain gay people “need” to live in these places, that everyone goes out and dances until three every morning, that most guys in these places are single, and that there is no longer a demand for such places since the gays moved in on Wisteria Lane. The reality is that living in a place where being gay is mainstream means that the whole gay thing is much less of an issue.
2. Older gay men who had the opportunity to live in the Castro of the Village and visit Key West and have a drink at the Monster with Tennessee Williams most certainly lament the fact that things have changed a lot, and rightfully so. Society has changed due to the hard work and difficult experiences of many people over the past thirty years. One other thing that is not brought up much is that, through the lense of nostalgia, most people look back at how they were and what their life was like thirty years ago when they were in their early twenties or thirties and think, damn, that was a blast and how did I do that? This isn’t limited to gay men. A lot of straight former hippies who are at the point of retirement are probably thinking the same thing.
For the record, I am 27 and my partner is 25. We’ve been together for six years, most of which has been spent in a gay ghetto. Ironically, a lot more guy in Key West are in solid relationships than in our hometown back up north. There is something about having a community (straight and gay) that supports and respects your relationship that makes being gay less of an issue than it would be if we were the only gay couple on our street.
Gay Species is right. “Cyber space” is ultimately boring, riddled with dimwits, and just not all that it was purported to be in the late 80s.
Has anyone every really tried online dating? I’m not talking hook-ups.
Sure there are the commercialized Matchdotcom success stories, but for the most part individuals who hide behind a monitor and keyboard and set up cyber contacts do so because they have no capacity to meet and sustain relationships in the real world. They’re irresponsible, narcissistic and a big waste of time.
I’m for bars, watering holes, community places, opera houses, museums, town squares, etc. etc. Keep the computer for reading the Drudge Report and watching porn and then get out and fucking LIVE.
Well as much as I like this website I must say I am deeply disappointed in it’s current reaction to gay couples popping out in other cities with a sense of disapproval. I am from El Paso, TX and I feel proud that we have fought and keep winning to be excepted in our own back yard. Yes it might not be San Francisco or New York City but it is my city and I love it. I am also glad and proud that I don’t have to travel to NY or San Fran to be excepted!! Shit, why leave the comfort of my own home?!?!
This picture is actually from a a psuedo gay club in Santa Barbara - Wildcat Lounge. Sunday is alt night…..just an FYI