Line #166 Main/Gayborhood


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10	->'''Castro's Aide:''' But Presidente! America tried to kill you!\
11	'''Fidel Castro:''' Ah, they're not so bad. They even named a street after me in San Francisco. ''[Castro's aide whispers in his ear]'' It's full of ''WHAT?!''
12	-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
13
14	A CastFullOfGay in real life. It's the part of a major city where its LGBT+ community either lives or visits to party. Rainbow flags hang from the streetlights, and the streets are lined with [[WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame gay bars]], boutiques, trendy cafes, and overpriced housing. You're likely to run into any of the QueerAsTropes archetypes and their [[FagHag friends]], see two men hold hands without fear of retribution and meet {{butch lesbian}}s and {{manly gay}}s who'll beat the ass of anyone who dares try.
15
16	Due to gentrification, the Gayborhood is often an upscale district, feeding the stereotype that all gay people have money out the yin-yang. [[TheFundamentalist Religious fundamentalists]] often preach about the evils of "''that'' part of town," seeing it as a modern-day [[Literature/TheBible Sodom and Gomorrah]], where prostitution and drug abuse run rampant, {{depraved homosexual}}s have bare buttsecks out of seedy bathhouses, and where one can't so much as bend over to pick up change without having a {{Leatherman}} on top of him like white on rice ([[ArmoredClosetGay how they know]] [[ShamefulSourceOfKnowledge all of this is]] [[YouAreWhatYouHate a different story]]).
17
18	The more touristy gayborhoods are often known as "gay meccas," as in, someplace every gay person (...who makes enough money to leisurely travel and has enough interest in the scene) should visit at least once. These areas might be separate from a big city, and quite affluent due to tourism. Stories based here tend to feed stereotypes that gay people (particularly the men) do nothing but lounge around pools and have sex all day.
19
20	Stories with a predominantly gay cast are often based in this setting. [[TheTwink Twinks]] in the midst of their ComingOutStory will visit the bars here on their first taste of the nightlife. Straight characters who come here for the first time are often in a state of wonder or paranoia towards the locals. The Gayborhood will often [[HollywoodProvincialism visually resemble San Francisco's world-famous Castro district]], even if no other part of the city has a streetcar (and the famous cable cars don't actually run [[RealityIsUnrealistic anywhere near the Castro]]). However, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_village real-life gayborhoods]] are as diverse as the cities they're based in.
21
22	In real life, gayborhoods got started under the threat of homophobia. Gays were motivated to live close to each other so they could have a community that wouldn't judge them. Many also wanted to minimize interaction with hostile police departments. For example, West Hollywood became a gayborhood because it used to be unincorporated territory under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department rather than the LAPD, who at the time was notoriously homophobic. In other cities, gayborhoods are either upscale parts of town where gay couples with two incomes and no kids could settle and make their lives, or working-class neighborhoods neither expensive nor crime-ridden, where gays would renovate the houses and open businesses, gentrifying the area over time until it ''became'' upscale, for better or for worse. In some cities, opponents of gentrification do not even pretend not to be motivated by homophobia.
23
24	With LGBT tolerance becoming more mainstream in many parts of the world, there's less motivation for queer people to move to the nearest gayborhood. Some are worried that widespread tolerance, though obviously a good thing overall, will [[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/scotus-same-sex-marriage-gay-culture.html reduce]] the population and uniqueness of the gayborhoods and their associated culture. Indeed, thanks to this effect, gentrification, or both, some gayborhoods have become TheThemeParkVersion of their former selves.
25
26	----
27	!!Examples:
28
29	[[foldercontrol]]
30
31	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
32	* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has even ''islands'' full of homosexuals. Amazon Lily is an all-women island where reproduction only happens outside of it. All women are in love with Empress Boa Hancock, and many of them admire the other Boa sisters, too, Sandersonia and Marigold. And Okama Kingdom is an island where everyone is either a transgender woman or a transvestite.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': As to be expected of a local where everyone is the same gender all the couples on Themyscira/Paradise Island are lesbian couples, and asexual Amazons are also not uncommon. This is first addressed in the text in ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'' where Diana informs Tom Tresser that Amazons have their own courting rituals.
37	* [[GeniusLoci Danny the Street]] of ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'' fame is always a sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ no matter what incarnation, fittingly for a character named after drag artist Danny La Rue.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Fan Works]]
41	* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/9558188 Coming Out]]'' is about the development of Ankh-Morpork's LGBTQ+ community in an area that becomes known as [=HubMor=] (for ''Hub''wards ''Mor''pork), the Hamlet, or Kelsey (no-one's sure where that last one came from), centered around the Brickwall Tavern.
42	* ''Fanfic/TheJoyousOne'' [[spoiler: has a trans equivalent in Beldúno.]]
43	* PlayedForLaughs in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6G2xfaC-l0 Kim Possible Recut (Kigo)]]'', which is a video that recuts ''Kim Possible'' to make it seem like a ComingOutStory about a teenager realizing she's gay. Shego and Kim end up in San Francisco near the end.
44	* ''Fanfic/TheRoadBuiltInHope'' is a ''Land of Oz'' oneshot where Dorothy stays with two [[TheSuffragette suffragette]] women while staying in San Francisco. Though Dorothy doesn't notice, the duo are a couple.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
48	* Mary in ''WesternAnimation/MaryAndMax'' mentions how her husband Damian takes her on honeymoon to Mykonos, famous in Europe as a gay tourist destination. Also, Damian wants to be in the theatre and is oddly reluctant at first to consummate their marriage. No wonder he [[spoiler:eventually leaves Mary for a (male) Kiwi shepherd]].
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
52	* In ''Mambo Italiano'', during his ComingOutStory, the protagonist visits this quarter for the first time. Quite important for him.
53	--> [[ReallyGetsAround His vain female rival]]: "Give me an hour in the Gay Village and there's not gonna be a Gay Village no more!"
54	* South Beach in ''Film/TheBirdcage.'' When it's suggested to get CampGay houseboy Agador out of the house for a while, Armand shoots it down.
55	-->'''Val''': Um, Dad, could we hire a, say, a straight maid for tonight?
56	-->'''Armand:''' There are no straight maids in South Beach.
57	* Two deleted scenes from ''Film/FreddyGotFingered'' shows that Gordy's boss and his boyfriend live in one.
58	* The Spanish film ''Chuecatown''[[note]]often known as "Boystown" in English, but [[Film/BoysTown we already have one of those]][[/note]] is an amateur-detective comedy set in the titular neighborhood of Madrid (see the "Real Life" section). The main characters are a [[TheBear Bear]] couple who end up as the targets of an [[CrimeAfterCrime extremely shady]] real-estate scheme.
59	* ''Film/TheTimesOfHarveyMilk'', a documentary about Milk the gay rights activist and gay politician, also documents how the Castro turned into the first gayborhood as gays and lesbians like Milk came to San Francisco in their thousands.
60	** Likewise the fictionalized film ''Milk''.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Literature]]
64	* ''Literature/AConfederacyOfDunces'' has this as an UnbuiltTrope. The novel focuses on the French Quarter of [[TheBigEasy New Orleans]], which while never a Gayborhood in its entirety, was noted even then (the early [[TheSixties '60s]]) to attract "characters", of whom many were gay. The character (both senses) of [[CampGay Dorian Greene]] is rather important to the story, and the gradual development of the gay community there is noted by the presence of Greene's costume party (at which men dance with men, call each other "darling," and gush over a Creator/JudyGarland record). He invites ultra-ultra-conservative (and definitively straight aside from ''[[BestialityIsDepraved quirks]]'', but ''also'' definitively [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist a "character"]]) Ignatius T. Reilly to said party. HilarityEnsues.
65	* ''Literature/ProudPinkSky'' is set in an alternate Berlin that forms the world's first gay state – making the entire city an example of this trope.
66	* In ''Literature/OurDumbCentury'', Website/TheOnion reports the 1906 San Francisco earthquake with this headline: "EARTH-QUAKE MARKS LEAST GAY DAY IN SAN FRANCISCO HISTORY. 'Queen City of the Pacific' Lies in Ruins. Garment District Still Flaming."
67	* ''Literature/TheseWordsAreTrueAndFaithful:'' Ernie enjoys being seen with Sam here. Later, Ernie's indiscretion is discovered here.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
71	* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' featured a serial killer in a Gayborhood. His first few victims were straight, but when he started targeting gay men, the local police feared it was a hate crime. The BAU team quickly determined that it was a serial killer who just happened to be gay himself and was targeting victims he was attracted to (as most of them do) and was staying in the area specifically to scare his husband back into his arms.
72	* ''Series/DantesCove'' in the TV show of the same name, an upmarket island resort where the residents appear to do little else except have gay sex.
73	* In an episode of ''Series/DharmaAndGreg'', Greg runs for Congress. At the end of the episode, his opponent comes out of the closet:
74	-->'''Greg''': Think this is gonna hurt me?\
75	'''Dharma''': Honey, this is San Francisco and unless you can turn into Creator/JudyGarland right now, you're through.
76	* ''Series/FellowTravelers'':
77	** The 1979 {{Flashback}}s focus heavily on the Castro district in San Francisco following the high-profile murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor UsefulNotes/HarveyMilk (who had represented the area for the city council). Milk was openly gay, and then as now the Castro is inhabited mostly by LGBT+ people. Marcus, Frankie and Timothy Laughlin are living there.
78	** Fire Island is also shown, a well-known gay vacation spot, where Hawkins Fuller has been staying after losing his son, and Tim visits him there.
79	* ''{{Series/Hightown}}'': There's a major LGBT+ community on Cape Cod, where Jackie lives. The show is partially centered around Provincetown, one of the major LGBT+ vacation spots, and Jackie takes full advantage of that for picking up women. In the series' intro, scenes of Provincetown include shots of an LGBT+ pride parade and other LGBT+ people on the city streets.
80	* ''Series/LittleBritain'' has Llandewi Breffi, where apparently the entire population is gay. Focus character Daffydd has failed to realize this and insists he's "the only Gay in the Village" because he's the only one who dresses and acts stereotypically; he's been seen to turn down dates rather than admit other gay people exist.
81	* ''Series/TheLWord'': The show is set in LA's real one, West Hollywood, justifying how the vast majority of characters seem to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender -- at least the people the cast interact with. Not to mention the fact that the café they all hang out at caters to LGBT+ people.
82	* Similar to the above example, the UsefulNotes/LosAngeles of the ''Series/NoahsArc'' universe is chock full of gay men. The vast majority of anyone the cast interacts with is gay.
83	* Liberty Avenue in ''Series/{{Queer As Folk\|US}}'', though this is not TruthInTelevision for UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} in RealLife. (It's actually based on the gay district in Toronto, where the show [[CaliforniaDoubling was produced]] -- a fact lampshaded when the gang goes to Toronto for a gay wedding.) Manchester's Canal Street (TruthInTelevision -- more than a few wags have tried to scrape the C off) in the UK original version.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Music]]
87	* Gay-themed disco act Music/VillagePeople released "San Francisco" and "In Hollywood (Everybody Is A Star)" as their first two singles, and later tracks included "Go West" (also about San Francisco), "New York City", and "Fire Island".
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Standup Comedy]]
91	* Comedian Dat Phan has a bit about living in a Gayborhood, because it was a nice place, affordable, relatively safe, and he didn't realize until after he moved in. As of his first Creator/ComedyCentral special, his mother (who [[RunningGag thinks that earrings mean guys are either gay or in a gang, depending on the ear]]) still hadn't realized that he was gay-adjacent.
92	* Brendon Burns had a bit that provided the former page quote for DiscriminateAndSwitch. He is talking about a particular upscale Gayborhood and mentions that he saw a lot of gay men living there but very few lesbians ([[GirlOnGirlIsHot and felt ripped off because of it]]). He theorizes that, in general, lesbians can't afford to live there, while gay men can because they usually have a lot of money. "Why is that, you ask? BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE A FRIGGIN' [[GoldDigger GIRLFRIEND]]! That's right, at first it seemed like I was going to be homophobic, turns out I'm just sexist."
93	* Todd Allen lived in a gayborhood with his girlfriend, and they adopted a cat together: a very fat black cat named Steve. One day, Steve escaped out the window and ran off. Todd ran outside after him.
94	-->'''Todd:''' STEEEEEVE! STEVE, COME BACK! YOU SON OF A BITCH!\
95	'''Random Gay Guy:''' [[MistakenForGay Forget him, honey. You can do better]]!\
96	'''Todd:''' No, I'm looking for Steve. [[BlackIsBiggerInBed He's black, and he's about this big]]. ''[approximates the size of a very fat cat with his hands]''\
97	'''Gay Guy:''' ''[eyes get wide and runs off excitedly]'' STEEEEEVE!
98	[[/folder]]
99
100	[[folder:Video Games]]
101	%%* A few {{MMORPG}}s have unofficial "gay" servers, where GLBT players are invited to avoid the homophobic comments one comes across every five seconds in other servers. Woe be upon the player who says "That's fucking gay" on [[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft Proudmoore]] or [[VideoGame/CityOfHeroes Victory]].
102	* The dating sim ''VisualNovel/DreamDaddy'' begins when the player character, a single father, moves to a cul-de-sac that turns out to be entirely populated by families ''also'' headed by single dads (with the exception of Joseph, who's [[SympatheticAdulterer married to a woman he's not particularly compatible with]] and looking for affection on the side), all of whom are handsome fellows game for a same-gender relationship.
103	* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' has the Queens district in San Fierro, inspired by the Castro and San Francisco, respectively (although unlike other locations in the game, it looks nothing like the real Castro). It was a pleasant surprise to see the area treated with no more derision than usual for GTA. That is, there's no "Rampage" mission and it's treated as another one of the three cities' cultural districts. Still, there's not much to actually ''do'' there besides playing a RhythmGame in [[WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame Gaydar Station]]. A bit of a stealth joke is the street layout. None of the streets in Queens are completely straight, it's all curves and turns.
104	* In ''[[VideoGame/KittyPowersMatchmaker Kitty Powers' Love Life]]'', it's possible to have a Love Village composed entirely of same-sex couples.
105	* In ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'', Ellie and Dina make their way through one in post-apocalyptic Seattle. The neighborhood is replete with shops that clearly catered to gay clientele, gay, bi and trans pride flags and even a rainbow-colored crosswalk. Ironically, Ellie and Dina (who are gay and bi, respectively) don't understand the significance of the rainbow imagry.
106	* It's possible to craft one of these in ''VideoGame/TheSims'' series, though you would need to use mods and hacks to eliminate the undesired opposing gender. In ''The Sims 3'', this can happen if a sim enacts a same-sex romantic interaction, especially with an inactive sim.
107	* The Castro is a prominent location for the [[TheCracker Prime]]_[[{{Troll}} Eight]] quest line in ''VideoGame/WatchDogs2'' as a gay bar is the favorite haunt of [[ButchLesbian Len]][[PsychoLesbian ni]], the leader of the opposing hacker group to [[AntiHeroTeam [=DedSec=]]].
108	* Developers for ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: The Burning Crusade'' reputedly based the Blood Elf capital Silvermoon City on West Hollywood.
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Web Comics]]
112	* In FurPiled, the cast visits West Hollywood from time to time.
113	* The Ironically named Straight Street area of Noirville in [[http://cockeyed.the-comic.org/comics/101/ Cliche City]]
114	* Market Square, the setting of ''Webcomic/GoodbyeToHalos''.
115	[[/folder]]
116
117	[[folder:Web Original]]
118	* In the Literature/WhateleyUniverse, an area known as "The Square" is home to many GLBT (mostly T) residents of UsefulNotes/LosAngeles that features mainly in the Phase stories. In [[SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy]] itself, the entire Poe Cottage is designated as a secret GLBT dorm house.
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Western Animation]]
122	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
123	** When Homer and Marge separate in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E17ThreeGaysOfTheCondo Three Gays Of The Condo]]", Homer finds a roommate in Springfield's gayborhood, though this doesn't occur to him even as he runs into Smithers rollerblading in hotpants and a trolley full of {{manly gay}}s rolls by and calls him a [[TheBear "bear"]].
124	** As noted by the quote above, Fidel Castro was unpleasantly surprised upon learning what the Castro District was known for in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E20TheTroubleWithTrillions The Trouble With Trillions]]".
125	* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndSteveTheHappiestGayCoupleInAllTheWorld'' (''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' [-[[RecycledInSpace WITH GAY PEOPLE!]]-]) is based in West Lahunga Beach, somewhere in Southern California.
126	* West Quahog in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Real Life]]
130	* In the United States:
131	** As noted in the description, UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco's Castro District.
132	*** The Castro is famous enough that it often gets conflated with the entire city in popular culture, such that many people consider all of San Francisco to be America's gayborhood. It even lent its name to a gay stereotype in TheSeventies, the "Castro clone", that of a gay man who embraced a [[ManlyGay hyper-masculine, blue-collar image]]. The Castro's reputation dates back to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, when sailors in the Pacific Theater who were discharged for homosexuality under the US Navy's "blue discharge" policy were released back to civilian life at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, the US' principal Pacific troop transport facility. This gave the city a large community of young gay men who had been ForcedOutOfTheCloset due to the nature of their discharge and probably [[YouCantGoHomeAgain couldn't go back home]]. From there, many writers of Creator/TheBeatGeneration, most notably Creator/AllenGinsberg, followed in pursuit of a more liberal atmosphere, and the rest is history.
133	*** As a bit of TruthInTelevision, the Castro really is rather upscale these days and you probably can't afford to live there. No matter who you fancy. Gentrification, the Bay Area's housing crisis, and the success of the gay rights movement have all led to this trope dying out in the Bay Area. As gay people receive more acceptance from mainstream society, there's less need to live in a special part of town for protection or to find partners. Bay Area news reports are full of how gay-oriented businesses in the Castro are dying, and how high-class clubs are causing longtime residents to be angry at the drunks hanging around Sunday at noon.
134	** UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity's Greenwich Village. Made famous by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots Stonewall riots]], which are often viewed as the event that started the gay rights movement. In the past few decades, it has expanded to Chelsea as well as Hell's Kitchen, which has been aptly named "Hellsea." As with San Francisco, the whole city is often considered to be one.
135	** Fire Island is a popular getaway for NYC's gay community. In one story, Creator/DavidSedaris talks about a guy whose apartment he once cleaned used references to Fire Island to signal that he wanted to have sex with Sedaris, not realizing that he had mixed up Sedaris--who actually cleaned apartments--with a gay "house cleaning" service that actually... well... [[TheOldestProfession they didn't so much clean your house as "clean your house".]]
136	** Provincetown (for the boys) and Northampton (for the girls), Massachusetts, the former located at the tip of Cape Cod and the latter sitting on the other end of the state at the foothills of the Berkshires. Boston also has the South End (which, incidentally, should never be confused with [[{{Southies}} South Boston]] if you value your life), though Jamaica Plain has been seeing its share of runoff in the face of mounting gentrification in the South End. P-town, ironically, is where [[TheFundamentalist the Pilgrims]] first arrived in America; they signed the famous Mayflower Compact in Provincetown Harbor and sailed to the West End of Cape Cod (where they would found Plymouth) shortly thereafter.
137	** UsefulNotes/LosAngeles' West Hollywood, as mentioned earlier. (Strangely, West Hollywood is also home to a large population of fairly conservative immigrant Russian Jews and still-more-conservative [[TheMafiya Russian gangsters]], who were probably attracted by the same low rents and--in the case of the gangsters--lax police attitude that attracted the gays.) Los Angeles also has a few minor gayborhoods in the form of Silver Lake and certain stretches of Long Beach.
138	** Palm Springs, out in the California desert, serves as a retreat for gay Angelenos the same way Fire Island serves gay New Yorkers. Palm Springs is also a popular gathering spot for lesbians when the ANA Inspiration, one of the five major championships in women's golf, comes to town every spring. This, both for golf and for general partying, has led to the event occasionally being called "spring break for lesbians".
139	** UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}'s main gayborhood is Edgewater. This is where you'll find most of the city's gay bars, and the local park is a notorious cruising spot. The suburbs of Lakewood (in the West side) and Cleveland Heights (in the East) are also known for being queer-friendly.
140	** Cincinnati LGBT likely will gravitate towards the artsy Northside.
141	** Columbus' Short North (along High Street between the Statehouse/downtown area and Ohio State University's main campus) is half art district, half gayborhood.
142	** 10th and Piedmont in the Midtown neighborhood of UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}. Also, Downtown Decatur has a thriving lesbian scene. Little 5 Points is also known for being a haven for gay people as well as others who may not fit in. For that matter, Atlanta is often conflated into being the Gayborhood for the entire DeepSouth. All major Southern cities have their own gay scenes, but "Hotlanta" is legendary.
143	** [[UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} The Windy City]] has Boystown, with Halsted St. as the focal point. Website/TheOtherWiki even mentions that it is the ''original'' Gayborhood.
144	** UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} is also a good contender for the title of the South's Gayborhood, though that largely depends on whether you think Miami is Southern as opposed to New York's Sixth Borough (or the seventeenth province of Cuba or the eleventh department of Haiti or the capital of the Caribbean). Within the Miami area itself, Miami Beach especially has this reputation, hence why the [[Film/TheBirdcage 1996 American remake]] of ''Theatre/LaCageAuxFolles'' moved the setting there; the gay community is often credited for sparking Miami Beach's revitalization after the drug wars of TheEighties gave the whole of South Florida a reputation as [[TheCartel Cartel Country]]. Wilton Manors, a city just north of Fort Lauderdale, also has rainbow flags flying above every other storefront, especially with Miami Beach growing increasingly gentrified.
145	** Walker's Point in UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}} is sometimes explicitly referred to as "The Gayborhood." Older gays with money have tended to migrate a few blocks south to the Bay View neighborhood. There's even a sign directing people to the ferry.
146	** The one in UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}--the area from 11th to Broad, Walnut to Pine, forming an approximate square southeast of City Hall, centered somewhere around the 1200 block of Locust Street--is ''usually'' called "the Gayborhood." Its "proper" name is "Washington Square West", but most natives will laugh in your face if you use that name.[[note]]Technically, Washington Square West includes some bits that aren't Gayborhood, but nobody cares about those areas unless they’re in the market for high-end real estate. If you’re giving directions to or describing the location of somewhere in the non-Gayborhood parts of WSW you usually just give the cross streets or say “near the Gayborhood”.[[/note]] Tourists often stumble upon it by accident as it's in Center City ("downtown") between the Independence Mall (where Independence Hall and all that touristy [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution Revolutionary]] stuff are) and the main business district surrounding City Hall, and are surprised to find that even the ''street signs'' have a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:13th_Gayborhood.jpg rainbow theme]].
147	** Historically, New Hope, PA (a QuirkyTown[=/=]artists' colony at about 1/3 of the way from Philadelphia to New York, where the Old York Road crosses the Delaware River and thus where travelers historically had to wait before getting a ferry) was popular with gay Philadelphians and (to a lesser extent) gay New Yorkers as a weekend/short vacation getaway. This is less pronounced today, but the influence can still be seen.
148	** Traditionally, Dupont Circle was both the gayborhood and the art district of UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC, although gentrification keeps pushing both ever eastward.
149	** In UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, Shadyside is the historical focus of queer culture in the city, but since it's also quite expensive, LGBT people have spilled into much of the east side, with gay bars scattered here and there. It is important to point out that Liberty Avenue, despite its depiction on ''Series/{{Queer As Folk\|US}}'', is just an average main street that originates downtown. The writers probably got the idea because Liberty was once home to multiple gay bars, had a reputation for transgender prostitutes, and hosted the Pride festival for a number of years, but these owe more to its central location than anything else. Altogether, Pittsburgh's LGBT community is much less centralized than in other cities.
150	** San Diego has Hillcrest. In recent years, gentrification and shifting demographics have also expanded the gay-village boundaries into adjacent neighborhoods, North Park and University Heights in particular.
151	** Asbury Park, UsefulNotes/NewJersey became this for the Jersey Shore once gentrification hit Greenwich Village. Hometown hero Music/BruceSpringsteen (who is straight but an outspoken ally) approves. More broadly, New Jersey as a whole has gained [[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/nyregion/welcome-to-the-rainbow-state.html a reputation]] as a {{Straight Gay}}borhood due to both its longstanding StepfordSuburbia image and its very strong support for LGBT+ rights (including being one of the first states to legalize civil unions and ban [[CureYourGays conversion therapy]] for minors), with many gay and lesbian couples who seek to settle down moving there.
152	** Allentown, in Buffalo, New York, is supportive of the LGBT community, and the gay community itself is rather sizable.
153	** [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas]] has Oak Lawn as its main gay neighborhood, with the Bishop Arts district rapidly becoming a secondary one.
154	** Capitol Hill and Wallingford in UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} have the largest concentrations, though gentrification on the former is causing spillover into the Central District.
155	** The Montrose district of UsefulNotes/{{Houston}}, Texas.
156	** In UsefulNotes/NewOrleans, the Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods just downriver from the French Quarter are famously gay. The French Quarter itself has been said to be the world's only entertainment district where both the straights and gays party right next to each other. When you cross St. Anne Street (the "Lavender Line" or the "Suck-sum Dicksum Line"), the bars and clubs suddenly change over from straight to gay. The French Quarter itself is at least partially a gayborhood, for the more well-heeled confirmed bachelors. (For a snapshot in the development of the French Quarter's relationship with the LGBT community, read ''Literature/AConfederacyOfDunces'', listed in "Literature" above.)
157	** UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}} has the neighborhood of Mount Vernon, which is also a designated National Landmark Historic District.
158	** UsefulNotes/{{Rochester}} has a quite large and active [[https://rocwiki.org/LGBT_Community LGBT+ community]] with a ton of history. Most of this population is concentrated in the city's Southeast Quadrant, particularly the South Wedge, the Neighborhood of the Arts, Park Avenue, and Upper Monroe neighborhoods.
159	** Subverted in San Antonio, Texas, despite the claims of any neighborhood with a gay bar. Being a Southern city with several military bases, it used to be ''extremely'' homophobic. But since the 2000's, it has made a complete 180 on queer people and culture to the point that by the time the city was ready for a gayborhood, it didn't need one. A few neighborhoods try to capitalize on this trope, but there isn't really a gayest place in the city.
160	** "The Grove" district, centered around a portion of Manchester Avenue in UsefulNotes/StLouis. Houses a string of gay- and lesbian-"friendly" bars, art venues, and shops. The strip also houses a branch of the renowned soul-food restaurant [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetie_Pie%27s Sweetie Pie's]] (link to Website/TheOtherWiki). Not actually in or adjacent to either of [=StL's=] neighborhoods with "Grove" in their official names.
161	** Phoenix has the Melrose District, traditionally focused on N. 7th Avenue between Indian School and Camelback Roads.
162	** Louisville has a couple of especially gay-friendly areas. Foremost is The Highlands, a highly eclectic district to the southeast of downtown. Old Louisville, between downtown and the University of Louisville, also has a significant LGBT presence, and in recent years Germantown and Smoketown (both between The Highlands and Old Louisville) have been developing the same.
163	** Gay activists in 1970 announced plans to turn an entire ''county'' into a gayborhood. Alpine County, California, south of Lake Tahoe, had a population of about 430. Activists announced plans to move several hundred people to the county, recall the county government, and replace it with an all-gay board. After a bit of a hubbub from straight people, plans were abandoned after about a year, and there has since been the suggestion that the whole thing was a publicity stunt.
164	** UsefulNotes/RichmondVirginia has the famous Carytown district. Though not as large as some of the other examples listed, it's a major hub for local LGBTQ+ activism. Not surprisingly, it's not far away from Virginia Commonwealth University, AKA [[StrawmanU "The Berkeley of the South."]]
165	** UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} has some small LGBT neighborhoods in the form of East English Village, Indian Village, Lafayette Park, and Woodbridge; but the main Gayborhood is the neighboring suburb of Ferndale, where gays first moved to in the 1980s following increased crime in the Palmer Park neighborhood of Detroit. By the 1990s, Ferndale's lesbian community began spreading further up Woodward Avenue into Pleasant Ridge, Royal Oak, and as far north as Birmingham.
166	** Even ''Iowa'' has one: The City of Davenport is known for a vibrant LGBTQ+ community, vibrant bar scene and night life, and extensive institutional support. In many ways it's Iowa's own San Francisco.
167	** [[FlyoverCountry Outside of major metro areas]], college towns often serve this purpose, even in conservative areas (assuming the local university isn't a fundamentalist school). One example that comes to mind is Morgantown, West Virginia, home of West Virginia University, the largest college in the state. The city is known for its large and politically active LGBT community.
168	** In San Diego, California, the Hillcrest neighborhood became the local center of the LGBTQ+ community starting in the 1970s.
169	* In Europe:
170	** [[FreestateAmsterdam Amsterdam's]] Reguliersdwarsstraat [[note]][[http://www.forvo.com/word/reguliersdwarsstraat/ click here for the pronunciation guide]][[/note]].
171	** Mykonos, Greece. Foreigners might assume it's Lesbos (as in "Lesbian"), but with its conservative Greek Orthodox church-going population, Lesbos is quite the opposite. The name does reference the island, but [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho the native of Lesbos who inspired it]] is literally ancient history, and modern-day residents prefer to be called "Lesbosians" specifically to distance themselves from the queer connotations.
172	** UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}}:
173	*** From the 1880s through its apex during the UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic, Berlin as a whole was [[https://www.npr.org/2014/12/17/371424790/between-world-wars-gay-culture-flourished-in-berlin seen as this]] for not just Germany but for Europe in general, being the home of numerous gay, lesbian, and transgender nightclubs and Magnus Hirschfeld's ''Institut für Sexualwissenschaft'', one of the first major LGBTQ+ rights groups in the world. While German law at the time banned homosexuality, the police turned a mostly blind eye to all of this because they realized that the law as written was virtually unenforceable. Furthermore, as the capital of Prussia and later Germany, Berlin had a large community of young male soldiers who were often underpaid and engaged in sex work to make extra money. In short, it was this trope combined with FreestateAmsterdam. Needless to say, [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany the Nazis]], who saw homosexuality as a Jewish plot to destroy the Aryan race, clamped down hard on all of this shortly after they took power, driving the city's gay culture into exile or underground.
174	*** Today, the area around Nollendorfplatz is the center of Berlin's gay community.
175	** The stereotype is that Brighton is the Gayborhood for the whole of the UK - in reality, it has one of its own in Kemptown.
176	** Manchester's Canal Street (more than one vandal tried scraping the C off the road signs), the setting of the UK ''Series/{{Queer As Folk\|UK}}''. The whole region surrounding it is referred to as the gay village so often that it's almost the official name of the district. Often called "The village" for short.
177	** Old Compton Street in London.
178	** Hebden Bridge is a small town in [[OopNorth West Yorkshire]] that gets the same schtick as Brighton for its large LGBT population.
179	** Bournemouth is often stereotyped as a PoorMansSubstitute for Brighton, with more old people. It has its own Gayborhood, known as [[StepfordSuburbia the Triangle.]]
180	** Chueca, in Madrid, Spain. Though an odd mix between an expansion and a de-centralisation has rendered the whole Centro District with a remarkable even ratio for gay towards straight people. At times it would seem that everybody is gay in such iconic places as Puerta del Sol. But still, Chueca remains as a get-go term for Madrid's homosexual population.
181	** The Marais in Paris. Not all of it, but a section.
182	*** The whole of Paris is sometimes {{Flanderized}} as this for the whole of France, although mentioning "le Marais" is as explicit (even outside of Paris, and among straight people) as mentioning "The Castro District" in the US.
183	** Nice on the French Riviera seems to have a fairly consistent reputation as gay mecca, though oddly enough it's also quite conservative, the Riviera being to France what Florida is to the US.
184	** To the extent that Angers, France can be said to have a Gayborhood, La Doutre would certainly qualify; although most bars are in the old city, the few gay bars are in what used to be the seedy, medieval, Drug Addicts And Hookers neighborhood across the river from the city centre and is now largely gentrified.
185	** The Glockenbach Viertel (Glockenbach neighborhood) in Munich, Germany used to be this. Nowadays it is still to a certain extent, but due to gentrification and a lot of clubs, it has grown beyond the stereotype.
186	** UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}}-St. Georg is sometimes claimed to be this. Part of it actually is.
187	* In UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}:
188	** UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}}'s Davie Village.
189	** Toronto has Church Street, so called because it has [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a big church on it]]. St. Michael's Cathedral is probably the origin of the name, though there are also a couple of other large ones in the area. Strangely enough, not Queen Street ([[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation lame joke]]).[[note]]Queen Street is named after ''[[UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria the]]'' Queen for most of Toronto's time as a young city, and is the baseline for surveying in the surrounding region; it runs right through downtown.[[/note]] While the two do intersect, the Gay Village peters out around that area and it gets kinda ghetto.
190	*** Although a different part of Queen Street (Queen West) is starting to be called "Queer West" because it's getting way too expensive to live on Church St.
191	** UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}}'s Gay Village is centered on the eastern part of the Rue Sainte-Catherine, which is the main artery through Downtown. Montreal is actually really weird in this respect, because not only is the gay village on the main drag near the heart of Downtown but so are a shit-ton of (straight) strip clubs. Of course, Montreal is weird in general. Awesome, but weird.
192	* In UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}:
193	** Prahran in Melbourne.
194	** And Oxford Street in UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}}.
195	** Also Fortitude Valley/neighbouring suburb New Farm in UsefulNotes/{{Brisbane}}. At least, throughout most of the 80s, 90s, and into the 00s. Undergoing something of a similar "gentrifying" shift to that of San Francisco over the last 10 - 15 years, though. Ironically, Fortitude Valley is home to more than a few strip clubs that cater to heterosexual men.
196	* In UsefulNotes/{{Asia}}:
197	** Shinjuku Nichoume in Tokyo.
198	** Tel Aviv is, to some extent, trying to market itself as such, and it is indeed one of the most gay-friendly parts of UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} (excludes the poorer parts of the city, namely southern Tel Aviv). Still, it's certainly the most gay-friendly city in the Middle East, but that isn't saying very much -- even within Israel. That said, UsefulNotes/{{Jerusalem}} has a growing LGBT presence, and Israel at least has the most progressive laws regarding the LGBT community in UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast.
199	** UsefulNotes/{{Beirut}} is the least gay-unfriendly place in UsefulNotes/TheArabWorld and thus has this reputation among Arabs. UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}} is still fairly homophobic on the whole, but Beirutis (who have other problems to worry about, in much the same way that Jim Crow-era UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} was "The City Too Busy to Hate") tend to care less. (That said, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21b2kk5ZQK0 one fairly popular Lebanese song]] from the early 2010s boils down to a straight [[TheCasanova Casanova]]'s complaint that conservatives should shut the fuck up about his womanizing and focus on all the homos in Beirut since at least he will find a wife and have children.)
200	** In Pattaya, UsefulNotes/{{Thailand}}, there's a section of the red-light district known as [[XtremeKoolLetterz Boyztown]], which was historically the largest gayborhood in Asia outside of Japan and a major site for gay tourism.
201	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / Gayborhood