esrosedotblog

I knew this but did not see it verified with studies and all.

Gay Neighborhoods are Turning Straight and It Might Not Be a Bad Thing

I don't think it is a bad thing at all.

We lived in Boston's Beacon Hill area and saw it "straighten" out. A combination of real estate deals and the end of crime and nasty street scenes led a lot of straight people to return to what had been, before the gays even, an elite conclave of privileged Anglos.

Same with the South End in Boston which had been ghetto black, then "turned" by gay couples who bought up the row houses, rehabbed, sectioned them off into apartments and condos and then rented or sold to other gay people. I know more than a few gay couples who bought when the buying was good and sold when the selling was even better. And made a bundle.

Now, you would have trouble walking the streets without bumping into little kids and yuppies of all stripes.

Now, Palm Springs. Gayed up with a lot of retired men mostly and the younger gay men who escape here to grow up a little and to be part of the vast service industry that serves people like me.

Now it is changing again here. We still outnumber the straights at all the events that I go to. But then I don't go around to many places. The atmosphere is quite "mixed" though wherever we go.

The gym population, by actual count this morning is probably 50/50 at an early hour (we must be getting up earlier now too) and it is hard to find many young women or single men shopping when I go. Guys and old people.

So, this is the revolution. We forget that it means change and that something is revolving or evolving. And here we are.

The days of the secret handshake, the furtive wink, the sly glance, the knowing grin are mostly over. It is all out in the open.

I remember that when I came out, older gay men actually resented the fracturing of the closet. Now, there is more fracturing. For awhile we were the new blacks, now and after us there are the other marginalized groups. By now the repressive institutions, mostly the church and state, have collapsed their rules and strictures. From what I can see we have even taken over the priesthood, the government and many of the other hallowed halls of former prejudice and hatred.

Only a few bigots are left. I know there are a few closet cases but most of these keep their heads down and grumble the hate words. Knowing that it is their time to disappear.