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‘Gay Enclaves Face Prospect of Being PassÉ': How Assimilation Affects the Spatial Expressions of Sexuality in the United States

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  • Amin Ghaziani

Abstract

Journalists, activists and academics alike predict that gay neighborhoods in the United States will disappear, yet many of their claims are unsubstantiated or overly determined by economic factors. This article examines 40 years of media accounts to identify the mechanisms that explain why these urban areas are changing. I begin with the observation that the rate of assimilation of sexual minorities into mainstream society has accelerated in today's so-called ‘post-gay' era. Assimilation expands the residential imagination of gays and lesbians beyond the boundaries of a specific neighborhood to the entire city itself. Furthermore, as sexual orientation recedes in centrality in everyday life, residents opine that few care if a person self-identifies as gay or straight. These two respective mechanisms of expansion and cultural sameness bring existing economic wisdom into dialogue with a cultural and political perspective about how our shifting understandings of sexuality also affect the decisions we make about where to live and socialize.

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  • Amin Ghaziani, 2015. "‘Gay Enclaves Face Prospect of Being PassÉ': How Assimilation Affects the Spatial Expressions of Sexuality in the United States," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 756-771, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:39:y:2015:i:4:p:756-771
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Dilmaghani, Maryam & Dean, Jason, 2020. "Sexual orientation and homeownership in Canada," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    2. Alison L. Bain & Julie A. Podmore, 2022. "THE SCALAR ARRHYTHMIA OF LGBTQ2S SOCIAL INCLUSION POLICIES: An Analysis of the Peripheral Municipalities of a ‘Progressive’ City‐region," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 784-806, September.
    3. Mattson, Greggor, 2019. "Small-City Gay Bars, Big-City Urbanism," SocArXiv s364v, Center for Open Science.
    4. Amin Ghaziani, 2021. "People, protest and place: Advancing research on the emplacement of LGBTQ+ urban activisms," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(7), pages 1529-1540, May.

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