Due to strong patterns of homophobic or anti-gay discrimination in small cities and rural areas, gays tend to move to and form identifiable communities in large and, to a lesser degree, medium-sized cities.
In the 12 largest U.S. cities, studies have found that 16 percent of individuals report some level of same-gender attraction or desire, and 9 percent report that they are gay or bisexual, compared to 7.5 percent and 1 percent respectively in rural areas. San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles appear to have the largest concentrations of gays in the United States.
Within these and other urban centers, gays often choose to reside in specific neighborhoods such as the Castro District in San Francisco, Greenwich Village in New York, West Los Angeles, and New Town in Chicago. Neighborhoods with a high percentage of gay residents are sometimes referred to as "gay ghettos" or "gay-friendly".
Gays have historically constituted a stigmatized social category in U.S. society. In most states and cities a gay person can legally be denied housing, employment, and public accommodations simply because of his sexual orientation. In response, many gays have created organizations that seek to further their rights, in much the same manner that African Americans and other ethnic minorities did during the 1950s and 1960s and women did during the 1970s and 1980s.
The Gay Movement's Watershed Event
The Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 in New York City was a watershed event that qualitatively expanded the political activism that had been growing in the gay community since the late 1950s. This event constituted a spontaneous and militant act of resistance to a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. Gay Pride Day is celebrated in June in cities throughout the country to commemorate the Stonewall Rebellion.
Subsequently, gay rights were codified through the passage of civil rights ordinances in Portland, Oregon and St. Paul Minnesota in 1974, in San Francisco in 1978, in Los Angeles and Detroit in 1979, and in New York City in 1986. Wisconsin passed a statewide gay rights law in 1981.
In response, singer Anita Bryant and TV evangelist Jerry Falwell led extensive homophobic campaigns which contributed to the repeal of gay rights measures in Miami in 1977 and later in St. Paul and Wichita. Gays have formed various national organizations including the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the Names Project (which commiserates those who have died of AIDS).
Victories for the Gay Community
Victories won by the gay movement include the growing number of institutions and companies that provide same-sex partner health insurance and other benefits. At the political level, many gays and lesbians work in coalition with one another. Studies of voting patterns have found that 3.2 percent of voters nationwide identify themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. In urban areas, this figure climbs to 8 percent.
Many gays also desire to have their committed relationships legally recognized as same-sex marriages. Presently, gays do not, for the most part, have the legal right to make medical, legal, and financial decisions on behalf of their partner should the need arise. Furthermore, they may not have access to their partner's employee health insurance or retirement benefits.
The onset of the AIDS epidemic has prompted many gays — often in coalition with lesbians and progressive heterosexuals — to agitate for HIV prevention programs and improved health care and treatment options for people living with AIDS, and to oppose discrimination against HIV infected individuals. The gay community played a leading role in pushing for changes in federal funding for HIV/AIDS research and services, and in accelerating access to new therapies of HIV/AIDS.
Copyright 2002 Sinclair Intimacy Institute
