Ian Johnson, Out Now
November 27, 2007
TOPICS: Lesbian and gay community marketing. Marketing destinations to lesbian and gay market. Gay community market developments. San Francisco, California, US gay market news. The Castro neighborhood holds town meeting seeking to protect the lesbian and gay community historical importance of The Castro neighborhood to the city's gay and lesbian communities.
Lesbian and gay communities -- the so-called gay ghettos -- may be under threat.
But one of the longest established, the adopted home of Harvey Milk in San Francisco -- The Castro-- is taking steps to preserver some of what has made it special to so many gays and lesbians for so long.
We wrote recently about some of the various factors causing a disaggregation of traditional lesbian and gay community demographic geographical clusters in various places around the world.
The traditional factors of safety in numbers and increased socialization opportunities are lessening in significance due to the growth in mainstream community acceptance and support for lesbian and gay people as equal members of modern society. That means lesbians and gay men can feel freer than almost any time in the past to live where they want to, and not just in their local 'gayborhood'.
The rise of the internet has also reduced the immediate need to live close by a gay and lesbian nightlife area in order to connect with other lesbians and gay men. When the world is online, then the global gay and lesbian community is only a click of a mouse away -- no matter where you live.
While we can identify some changing demographic factors behind a reducing trend for so-called gay ghettos, that does not mean that the gay community history tied up in such geographical gay market clusters is unimportant, both in terms of their marketing significance as well as their historical importance.
Now a group in San Francisco is fighting to preserve aspects of lesbian and gay community cultural life that exist in The Castro neignborhood. Castro Street is famous amongst many gays and lesbians the world over as one of the traditional epicenters of lesbian and gay community life.
The Castro neighborhood has also been the traditional heartland of the lesbian and gay market with gay oriented businesses targeting a gay market audience having existed there for more than thirty years.
A local action group is setting up to explore ways to preserve what can be kept for the area in terms of The Castro's historical importance to lesbian and gay culture both locally and internationally.
The local San Francisco gay media product, Bay Area Reporter, carries an interesting story about this topic.
Here is an extract:
Case made for gay neighborhoods
The future of gay neighborhoods such as the Castro was the focus of a panel discussion earlier this month, even as planning officials have begun a design workshop process to gather public input on the issue.
The Commonwealth Club hosted the event, entitled "The 'De-Gaying' of the Castro: Are Queer 'Hoods Worth Saving?" on Thursday, November 8. About 60 people attended.
"Since the 1970s, the Castro has emerged as a gay, lesbian, and bisexual destination for all sorts of things," said moderator Don Romesburg in his opening remarks. "It's become a powerful political voting bloc in the city and in the state; it's become a beacon of possibility and belonging for many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. It's also been a place of some exclusion; it has been a place that some lesbians, bisexuals, men of color, and others have felt left out of at different times or explicitly marginalized from."
Romesburg also mentioned the major redevelopment plans that are currently under way for the Castro and Upper Market neighborhoods. The plans "can profoundly alter the Castro's demography and its cultural landscape in ways that can both benefit lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and potentially threaten it," he said.
Panelist Alan Martinez, a San Francisco architect and co-founder of the Castro Coalition, talked about the hints of futility and resignation he has heard in recent discussions on the future of the Castro and other gay neighborhoods.
"It's just human nature to only appreciate what you have after it's lost, but I hope we don't end up in that position," said Martinez. "What do we have to lose? Think of what the GLBT community has accomplished since the Second World War. The queer institutions, the businesses, the culture, literature, social networks, media, art, social services, political groups, and yes, neighborhoods that have been created in these years have never happened before in human history. Our forebears and us made this all happen out of nothing but outrage and friendship and hard work and love."
AnMarie Rodgers, an urban designer at the San Francisco Planning Department, was also on the panel. She noted that although she works for the Planning Department, she was not at this event representing the department, and the views she expressed were her own.
Rodgers closed her remarks with a cautionary tale about the gentrification of the Valencia corridor. "The Valencia corridor was home to multiple women's bars, bookstores, and women-centered businesses. When Valencia Street gentrified, these women's spaces were pushed out. It was not seen as an issue to all queers. If it was seen as an issue at all, it was seen as an issue for the women. Inclusive, dedicated queer space – queer neighborhoods – will not be gained without a struggle. What we learned from the loss of the Valencia corridor is if you want inclusive, queer neighborhoods, we need to fight for it with a broad, diverse coalition."
Castro resident Demian Quesnel reminded the audience that the night of the panel (November 8) was the 30th anniversary of the late Harvey Milk's election to the Board of Supervisors. "That really couldn't have happened, at least not at that time and place 30 years ago, without the Castro as the concentration of our community and I think that's very significant," said Quesnel.
Supervisor Bevan Dufty also addressed the audience: "For me, over the next few years that I'll be your supervisor, the sustainability of the Castro is really my biggest interest and concern."
"Some people will choose to live in a more integrated neighborhood and some people will choose to live with more like-minded people and that's a personal choice that people should have the right and the ability to make," said Quesnel in response to a question. "The idea that gay liberation and gay freedom has been obtained is a bit shortsighted and we've got a long ways to go before we can truly call ourselves equal citizens. Having a geographic base gives us some political power that we would lose if we didn't have a geographic base. When you become integrated your voice becomes diluted, and I think we've got a long ways to go before we can afford to have a diluted voice."
The final community design workshop on the Castro and Upper Market plan is Monday, December 10 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, 4235 19th Street at Collingwood.
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