Gay Village - The "ghetto"

The "ghetto"

The term ghetto originally referred to those places in European cities where Jews were required to live according to Jewish custom and law. 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, gay men and lesbians, racial minorities, hobos, prostitutes and bohemians.

These neighborhoods, which often arise from zones of discard – that is, crowded, high density, and often deteriorated inner city districts – are critical sites where members of gender and sexual minorities congregate. From one perspective, these spaces are places of marginality created by an often homophobic 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).

In some cities gays and lesbians congregate in visibly identified gay neighborhoods, while in others they are dispersed in neighborhoods which have less gay visibility because a liberal, affirming counterculture is present. For example, gays and lesbians in San Francisco congregate in the gay and lesbian-oriented Castro neighborhood, while gays and lesbians in Seattle concentrate in the city's older bohemian stomping grounds of Capitol Hill and those of Montreal have concentrated in a working-class neighbourhood referred to administratively as "Centre-Sud", but largely known as "Le Village". These areas, however, have higher concentrations of gay and lesbian residents and businesses that cater to them than do surrounding neighborhoods.