How Does The Gentrification of Historically LGBTQIIA+ Communities Contribute To The Erasure of Their Built-Heritage, And How Can We, As Preservationists, Mediate This Trend? Matthew Evans PRES 110: Introduction to Preservation Design: A Global Theory and Practice. 8 March 2018 (Final Draft) Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………1 Gentrification of LGBTQIIA+ Neighborhoods………………………………………………………...2 The Preservation of Queer Landmarks……………….….…………………………………………...7 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………….10 1 Evans Introduction “Places and identity are inextricably linked… [and] ‘the continued presence of old places helps us know who we are, and who we may become in the future,’” Quote by Tom Mayes of The National Trust for Historic Preservation.1 Places embody collections of memories and experiences that make up our shared American history. They symbolize the struggles, triumphs, and important moments that define us as a nation. Although all significant sites should be preserved to encapsulate our shared history in its unbiased entirety, this is not the case in reality. Modern forces of gentrification and assimilation threaten to erase the physical histories of historically underrepresented minority communities, especially those of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex, Intersectional, Asexual, and AIDS-Positive (LGBTQIIA+) individuals. By destroying this community’s built heritage, these forces dissociate individuals from their identities and perpetuate the silencing of queer* citizens and their significance in the narrative of American history. As a result of this historical erasure, LGBTQIIA+ individuals are rarely represented accurately and respectfully in our culture and society. However, recent actions taken by the National Parks Service (NPS), National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), and other nonprofit organizations seek to reverse this trend and rebuild historically queer communities and landmarks.2 By adding historically significant LGBTQIIA+ sites to their system of U.S. National Monuments, the NPS is systematically preserving these 1 Dubrow, Gail. Preserving LGBTQ Heritage. (Washington, D.C.: National Park Foundation, 2016) Accessed 19 ​ ​ ​ ​ January 2018. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/lgbtqheritage/upload/lgbtqtheme-preservation.pdf . Page 7-8. ​ ​ 2 Lavario, Andrea. “HRC Participates in National Park Service LGBTQ Heritage Theme Study. Human Rights Campaign, 2016. https://www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-participates-in-national-park-services-lgbtq-heritage-theme-study . ​ ​ Accessed 19 January 2018. * “Queer” in in this terminology refers to the LGBTQIIA+ community, and its use is not meant derogatorily. ​ 2 Evans sites and their surrounding communities for future generations. Meanwhile, the NRHP encourages the nomination of LGBTQIIA+ sites to spread awareness of queer history. These positive endeavors seek to push the Gay Rights Movement into the national consciousness and assert its historical significance and legitimacy. Although these efforts are monumental steps towards preserving LGBTQIIA+ heritage, more should be done to protect queer neighborhoods from gentrifying into the common urban landscape. In many cases, these communities still provide a place of refuge and fraternity for queer individuals, a place where they can feel accepted and comfortable for who they are. The built heritage of this community originally started as a physical support system composed of “semi-formal clusters of LGBT-friendly bars and [information exchange and health] services [which] developed into more fully-fledged and formalised villages,” according Dr. Phil Jones (Ph.D), a professor of cultural geography at the University of Birmingham.3 Although queer acceptance has permeated the mainstream society of politically-liberal areas, these communities still act as necessary support systems today, rendering their preservation as an extremely important and essential activity for the equity of future LGBTQIIA+ individuals. The Gentrification of Historically LGBTQIIA+ Neighborhoods Historically queer neighborhoods, sometimes nicknamed “gayborhoods,” are disappearing into the urban landscape of American metropolitan areas because their residents are being forced out of their homes and local establishments by gentrification.4 Gentrification is the buying and selling of houses and businesses in urban neighborhoods by upper or middle class individuals, resulting in an increase in property values that often displaces lower-income 3 Jones, Phil. “Is there a Future for Gay Villages?” University of Birmingham, 2018. https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/perspective/is-there-a-future-for-gay-villages.aspx . Accessed 6 March 2018. ​ 4 James, Scott. “There Goes the Gayborhood.” The New York Times, 2016. Accessed 19 January 2018. ​ ​ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/us/gay-pride-lgbtq-gayborhood.html?_r=0 . Page 3. ​ 3 Evans residents. Although many of these neighborhoods were established as places of refuge from homo / transphobic persecution, mainstream acceptance of homosexuals and transgender persons in politically-liberal areas has allowed queer individuals to leave their communities and move elsewhere.5 Their vacancies create real estate and investment opportunities in places, like San Francisco, Oakland, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, etc…, where housing is in high demand. Real-estate moguls buy and sell these properties for a profit, thus increasing a neighborhoods’ property values and, more influentially, property taxes. Unfortunately, since LGBTQIIA+ individuals are still generally paid less than their straight / cisgender counterparts, they can no longer afford to live there and are forced to relocate to less expensive neighborhoods.6 Consequently, this creates a vacuum that systematically displaces queer residents from their communities and destroys the establishments and landmarks they created. Take the Castro District of San Francisco, California, as an example of the importance of “gayborhoods.” Prior to its establishment as a queer community in the 1960s and 70s, the Castro District was a middle class, white neighborhood. However, it was abandoned in a “working class exodus to the suburbs” during the 1930s and the district started to decline into a ​ neglected, urban area.7 While bleak, the neighborhood gave members of the queer community the opportunity to “find homes and start businesses with relatively little opposition or capitol.”8 According to Amin Ghaziani, associate professor at the University of British Columbia and author of the recently published study Sex Cultures, “The United States’ strict military ​ ​ prohibitions against gay men and lesbians meant that anyone even suspected of homosexuality was discharged, most often in major cities with major military bases,” like San Francisco, 5 Ibid, Pages 1-2. 6 Gates, Gary J . “Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples in the American Community Survey: 2005-2011.” (Los ​ Angeles: The Williams Institute, 2013) . http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/ACS-2013.pdf . ​ ​ Accessed 6 March 2018. 7 Ibid, Pages 3. 8 Ibid. 4 Evans Seattle, Miami, or New York.9 Contributing to their isolation, queer individuals “were often fired from jobs or evicted from apartments if their sexual orientation became known; same-sex dancing or kissing was illegal, as was the wearing of clothing traditionally worn by the opposite gender.”10 Labeled criminals, the discharged LGBTQIIA+ individuals settled into communities, like The Castro, where they could open their own bars and meeting spaces. According to Gay Rights activist Cleve Jones, “These initial gayborhoods offered the first opportunities for [queer individuals] to openly interact with people of the same sexual orientation,” creating a small political clout that would eventually grow into the Gay Rights Movement.11 For example, Harvey Milk, a resident of the Castro District, became the United States’ first openly-gay elected official when he became a San Francisco city supervisor in 1977, giving him and his community the ability to advocate for queer issues. Consequently, this movement became a long-term, national effort to bring marriage equality and mainstream LGBTQIIA+ acceptance to America, which was partially achieved in 2015 when the Supreme Court’s declared that prohibiting the issuing of marriage licenses to same-sex couples was unconstitutional in Obergefell v. Hodges. As the ​ ​ movement continues to fight for the rights of queer Americans, these neighborhoods currently remain the social and cultural nuclei of the historic movement. However, many of the queer community's established bars and residences are disappearing due to new economic stressors. According to New York Times Reporter Scott James in his article “There Goes the Gayborhood,” “as these communities improved and flourished, they eventually became affluent and desirable places to live.” Additionally, as described in Will Fellows’ A Passion to Preserve: Gay Men as Keepers of Culture, queer ​ ​ individuals “lived in restored older houses, often furnished and decorated with antiques,” 9 Ibid., Page 2. 10 Carter, David; Andrew Scott Dolkart; Gale Harris; and Jay Shockley. Stonewall National Historic Landmark ​ Nomination. (Waterford, NY: New York State Historic Preservation Office, 1999) Accessed 21 February 2018. ​ https://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/statelists/ny/Stonewall.pdf . Page 9. ​ 11 See Note 4, Page 5. 5 Evans because it was more affordable, and typically, as a byproduct, they “creat[ed], restor[ed],