There Goes The Neighborhood?

Video killed the radio star. O.J. killed Ron and Nicole. Now, the Internet and homo-powered downtown revitalization are killing gay ghettos across the country. (Link is to gay.com)

In just about any other place, the sight of a man and woman pushing a stroller would be welcomed as a sign of stability and safety. In San Francisco's heavily gay Castro District, some people can't help but think: There goes the neighborhood.

Gay leaders in the Castro and other gay neighborhoods around the country fear their enclaves are losing their distinct identities.

These areas are slowly being altered by an influx of heterosexual couples, the forces of gentrification, and growing confidence among gays that they can live pretty much wherever they want nowadays and do not need the security of being in a "gay ghetto."

"What I've heard from some people is, 'We don't need the Castro anymore because essentially San Francisco is our Castro,'" said Don Romesburg, co-chairman of the GLBT Historical Society, a group that represents gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals. ...

The same trend is happening in other large cities. In the South, we took notice the last couple of years when Backstreet -- at one time the No. 1 gay bar in Atlanta -- closed after years of fighting "blue laws" and numerous drug busts. High-rise condos are taking its place.

In part, gay people are to "blame" for the interest by straight people to move back into downtown areas. We move in, remodel and -- viola! But more likely, it's a sign of progress toward acceptance and equality. Twenty years ago, young gay people moved to urban centers to escape homophobia and to embrace safety in numbers. We moved to San Francisco, the West Village, New Orleans, anywhere but "here."

Gay people coming of age today see very little reason to move to large, high-tax cities. Or if they do, prefer to live outside the ghettos with straight roommates who think nothing of their sexual orientation. Instead, they can stay "home."

Community activists worry that gayborhoods are losing their relevance as gay men and lesbians win legal rights and greater social acceptance.

"Thirty years ago, if I lived in the Midwest and I was gay, my thought was I would go to San Francisco or New York," says Gary Gates, a demographer for the Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA that specializes in sexual orientation and the law. "Now, a person can go to Kansas City and find a fairly active and open gay community." ...

Another factor contributing to the decline of gay neighborhoods: Many young gays feel comfortable mixing with people of different genders and sexual orientations.

"We don't want to ostracize ourselves," said Matty Lamos, 20, who moved to San Francisco's diverse Mission District from nearby Petaluma three years ago.

You just can't have it both ways. We can't clamor for acceptance while walling ourselves off from people who are different than we are. "What progress we are making," Freud once said. "In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books."

In losing some of our neighborhoods' identity, we gain something much greater: anonymity.