From one perspective, these spaces are places of marginality created by an often homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic heterosexual community from another perspective, they are places of refuge where members of gender and sexual minorities can benefit from the concentration of safe, nondiscriminatory resources and services (just as other minorities do). These neighborhoods, which often arise from crowded, highly dense, and often deteriorated inner city districts, are critical sites where members of gender and sexual minorities have traditionally congregated. During the 20th century, ghetto came to be used to describe the areas inhabited by a variety of groups that mainstream society deemed outside the norm, including not only Jews but poor people, LGBT people, ethnic minorities, hobos, prostitutes, and bohemians. The term ghetto originally referred to those places in European cities, where Jews were required to live according to local law.
This process does not always work out to the benefit of these communities, as they often see property values rise so high that they can no longer afford them, as high-rise condominiums are built and bars move out, or the only LGBT establishments that remain are those catering to a more upscale clientele. In these cases, the establishment of a LGBT community has turned some of these areas into more expensive neighborhoods, a process known as gentrification – a phenomenon in which LGBT people often play a pioneer role. These neighborhoods are also often found in working-class parts of the city or in the neglected fringe of a downtown area – communities which may have been upscale historically but became economically depressed and socially disorganized. Today, these neighborhoods can typically be found in the upper-class areas of a given city, like in Manhattan, chosen for aesthetic or historic value, no longer resulting from the sociopolitical ostracization and the constant threat of physical violence from homophobic individuals that originally motivated these communities to live together for their mutual safety. Much as other urbanized groups, some LGBT people have managed to utilize their spaces as a way to reflect their cultural value and serve the special needs of individuals in relation to society at large. Such areas may represent a LGBT-friendly oasis in an otherwise hostile city or may simply have a high concentration of gay residents and businesses. Gay villages often contain a number of gay-oriented establishments, such as gay bars and pubs, nightclubs, bathhouses, restaurants, boutiques, and bookstores.Īmong the most famous gay villages are New York City's Greenwich Village, Hell's Kitchen, and Chelsea neighborhoods in Manhattan Fire Island and The Hamptons on Long Island Asbury Park, Lambertville, and Maplewood in New Jersey Boston's South End, Jamaica Plain, and Provincetown, Massachusetts Philadelphia's Gayborhood Washington D.C.'s Dupont Circle Midtown Atlanta Chicago's Boystown London's Soho, Birmingham's Gay Village, Brighton's Kemptown, and Manchester's Canal Street, all in England Los Angeles County's West Hollywood as well as Barcelona Province's Sitges, Toronto's Church and Wellesley neighborhood, the Castro of San Francisco Madrid's Chueca Sydney's Newtown and Darlinghurst Berlin's Schöneberg the Gay Street in Rome, Le Marais in Paris Green Point in Cape Town Melville in Johannesburg and Zona Rosa in Mexico City. Metro station in Montreal's Gay Village districtĪ gay village (also known as a gay neighborhood, gay enclave, gayvenue, gay ghetto, gaytto, gay district, gaytown, or gayborhood) is a geographical area with generally recognized boundaries that is inhabited or frequented by many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer ( LGBT) people.