Measuring urban sexual cultures

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.

Cultural Archipelagos: New Directions in the Study of Sexuality and Space

“…To call Greenwich Village a gay Potemkin Village seems unfair to me. I prefer to think about these neighborhoods as having a symbolic relationship to one another; Even as businesses and residences shifted north to Chelsea, the Village retained a queer reputation due to the location of Stonewall, which is still a major symbol of queerness and an “anchor institution” (Ghaziani ) for the area.…”

Examining the Nuance in Public Opinion of Pro-LGB Policies in a “Red State”

“…Alternatively, there might be a discrepancy between how rural residents respond to survey questions about LGB policies and how they treat LGB individuals in their community. Such questions warrant attention in future research given that LGB people are becoming increasingly geographically diverse (Ghaziani 2014;Spring 2013). Overall, our research shows that the red-blue state and urban-rural narratives stereotype states and regions and obscure the nuances and complexities that exist in these areas regarding public opinion of pro-LGB policies.…”

“…Finally, evidence suggests that LGB individuals are becoming increasingly geographically diverse, which may indicate experiences of acceptance outside of areas once considered the only places of safety and acceptance (e.g., urban locations -Gates 2013;Ghaziani 2014;Spring 2013). Indeed, some research finds that LGB individuals living in rural areas feel a strong connection to their community, feel accepted, and report higher levels of well-being than their urban counterparts (Kazyak 2011(Kazyak , 2012Oswald and Lazarevic 2011;Wienke and Hill 2013).…”

Theory Making from the Middle: Researching LGBTQ Communities in Small Cities

“…Ghaziani () rightly notes conceptual confusion about what, precisely, constitutes gay communities and how communities and their changes might be measured. His proposal to measure community institutions and commemorations, drawn from research in Chicago, while appropriate to large cities, misses key elements of LGBTQ communities in small cities.…”