Contrary to stereotype, he said, same-sex couples earn on average $15,000 less annually than opposite sex households. A New Jersey native wanted in suspicion for killing two men he met partying at a Seattle gay club last month has been spotted back home in the throes of an armed robbery. Ghaziani listed two reasons gayborhoods are losing their edge: Gays and lesbians are being priced out.
One sociologist characterized lesbians as the “canaries in the urban coal mine.” Lesbians, he said, typically pave the way. Ghaziani said gays and lesbians have often been involved in the early stages of urban revitalization or renewal. The 1970s and 1980s marked a moment in time that demographers refer to as the Great Gay Migration. These areas flourished some decades later following the Stonewall riots of 1969. “Gayborhoods in the United States first formed following World War II,” he said, “when gay men and lesbians who were discharged from the military as a result of their real or perceived homosexuality decided to remain behind in major urban centers rather than returning home disgraced.” Amin Ghaziani, an associate professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, has analyzed the changing role of gay neighborhoods in his new book, 'There Goes the Gayborhood.” Ghaziani said gayborhoods began as refuges for LGBT people from heterosexual culture.
