History Main / Gayborhood

'''Fidel Castro:''' Ah, they're not so bad. They even named a street after me in San Francisco.\\
''[Castro's aide whispers in his ear]''\\
'''Fidel Castro:''' It's full of ''WHAT?!''

* ''{{Series/Hightown}}'': There's a major LGBT+ community on Cape Cod, where Jackie lives. The show is partially centered around Provincetown, one of the major LGBT+ vacation spots, and Jackie takes full advantage of that for picking up women.

* ''Series/FellowTravelers'': The 1979 {{Flashback}}s focus heavily on the Castro district in San Francisco following the high-profile murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor UsefulNotes/HarveyMilk (who had represented the area for the city council). Milk was openly gay, and then as now the Castro is inhabited mostly by LGBT+ people. Marcus, Frankie and Timothy Laughlin are living there. Fire Island is also shown, a well-known gay vacation spot, where Hawkins Fuller has been staying after losing his son, and Tim visits him there.

* Liberty Avenue in ''Series/{{Queer As Folk|US}}'', though this is not TruthInTelevision for UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} in RealLife. (It's actually based on the gay district in Toronto, where the show [[CaliforniaDoubling was produced]]--a fact lampshaded when the gang goes to Toronto for a gay wedding.) Manchester's Canal Street (TruthInTelevision - more than a few wags have tried to scrape the C off) in the UK original version.

* ''Series/TheLWord'': The show is set in LA's real one, West Hollywood, justifying how the vast majority of characters seem to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender - at least the people the cast interact with. Not to mention the fact that the café they all hang out at caters to LGBT+ people.
* Similar to the above example, the UsefulNotes/LosAngeles of the ''Series/NoahsArc'' universe is chock full of gay men. The vast majority of anyone the cast interacts with is gay.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' featured a serial killer in a Gayborhood. His first few victims were straight, but when he started targeting gay men, the local police feared it was a hate crime. The BAU team quickly determined that it was a serial killer who just happened to be gay himself and was targeting victims he was attracted to (as most of them do) and was staying in the area specifically to scare his husband back into his arms.
* ''{{Series/Hightown}}'': There's a major LGBT+ community on Cape Cod, where Jackie lives. The show is partially centered around Provincetown, one of the major LGBT+ vacation spots, and Jackie takes full advantage of that for picking up women.
* ''Series/FellowTravelers'': The 1979 focuses heavily on the Castro district in San Francisco following the high-profile murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk (who had represented the area for the city council). Milk was openly gay, and then as now the Castro is inhabited mostly by LGBT+ people. Marcus, Frankie and Tim are living there. Fire Island is also shown, a well-known gay vacation spot, where Hawk's been staying after losing his son, and Tim visits him there.

*** The Castro is famous enough that it often gets conflated with the entire city in popular culture, such that many people consider all of San Francisco to be America's gayborhood. This reputation dates back to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, when sailors in the Pacific Theater who were discharged for homosexuality under the US Navy's "blue discharge" policy were released back to civilian life at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, the US' principal Pacific troop transport facility. This gave the city a large community of young gay men who had been ForcedOutOfTheCloset due to the nature of their discharge and probably [[YouCantGoHomeAgain couldn't go back home]]. From there, many writers of Creator/TheBeatGeneration, most notably Creator/AllenGinsberg, followed in pursuit of a more liberal atmosphere, and the rest is history.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

[[folder:Film--Animated]]

[[folder:Film--Live Action]]

** In UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, Shadyside is the historical focus of queer culture in the city, but since it's also quite expensive, LGBT people have spilled into much of the east side, with gay bars scattered here and there. It is important to point out that Liberty Avenue, despite its depiction on ''Series/{{Queer As Folk|US}}'', is just an average main street that originates downtown. The writers probably got the idea because Liberty has been home to a few gay bars (as of 2020, only one remains), had a reputation for transgender prostitutes, and hosted the Pride festival for a number of years, but these owe more to its central location than anything else. Altogether, Pittsburgh's LGBT community is much less centralized than in other cities.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

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* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' where Homer and Marge separate, Homer finds a roommate in Springfield's gayborhood, though this doesn't occur to him even as he runs into Smithers rollerblading in hotpants and a trolley full of {{manly gay}}s rolls by and calls him a [[TheBear "bear"]].
** Homer's {{Gaydar}} was never much good, though he recognized a [[WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame lesbian bar]] for what it was; his only complaint was its lack of fire exits.
** Not to mention the time the Simpsons were being taken on a tour around town by a gay acquaintance and ran into Mr. Smithers in one of these.
** As noted by the quote above, Fidel Castro was unpleasantly surprised upon learning what the Castro District was known for.

** Also Fortitude Valley/neighbouring suburb New Farm in UsefulNotes/{{Brisbane}}. At least, throughout most of the 80s, 90s, and into the 00s. Undergoing something of a similar "gentrifying" shift to that of San Francisco over the last 10 - 15 years, though.

* Liberty Avenue in ''Series/QueerAsFolk'', though this is not TruthInTelevision for UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} in RealLife. (It's actually based on the gay district in Toronto, where the show [[CaliforniaDoubling was produced]]--a fact lampshaded when the gang goes to Toronto for a gay wedding.) Manchester's Canal Street (TruthInTelevision - more than a few wags have tried to scrape the C off) in the UK original version.

** In UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, Shadyside is the historical focus of queer culture in the city, but since it's also quite expensive, LGBT people have spilled into much of the east side, with gay bars scattered here and there. It is important to point out that Liberty Avenue, despite its depiction on ''Series/QueerAsFolk'', is just an average main street that originates downtown. The writers probably got the idea because Liberty has been home to a few gay bars (as of 2020, only one remains), had a reputation for transgender prostitutes, and hosted the Pride festival for a number of years, but these owe more to its central location than anything else. Altogether, Pittsburgh's LGBT community is much less centralized than in other cities.

** Manchester's Canal Street (more than one vandal tried scraping the C off the road signs), the setting of the UK ''Series/QueerAsFolk''. The whole region surrounding it is referred to as the gay village so often that it's almost the official name of the district. Often called "The village" for short.

* Mary in ''WesternAnimation/MaryAndMax'' mentions how her husband Damian takes her on honeymoon to Mykonos. Mykonos, famous in Europe as a gay tourist destination. Also, Damian wants to be in the theatre and is oddly reluctant at first to consummate their marriage. No wonder he [[spoiler:eventually leaves Mary for a (male) Kiwi shepherd]].

* In Canada:
** [[UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} Vancouver's]] Davie Village.

** And Oxford Street in Sydney.
** Also Fortitude Valley/neighbouring suburb New Farm in Brisbane. At least, throughout most of the 80s, 90s, and into the 00s. Undergoing something of a similar "gentrifying" shift to that of San Francisco over the last 10 - 15 years, though.

** Tel Aviv is, to some extent, trying to market itself as such, and it is indeed one of the most gay-friendly parts of UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} (excludes the poorer parts of the city, namely southern Tel Aviv). Still, it's certainly the most gay-friendly city in the Middle East, but that isn't saying very much -- even within Israel. That said, Jerusalem has a growing LGBT presence, and Israel at least has the most progressive laws regarding the LGBT community in the Middle East.
** Beirut is the least gay-unfriendly place in the Arab World and thus has this reputation among Arabs. UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}} is still fairly homophobic on the whole, but Beirutis (who have other problems to worry about, in much the same way that Jim Crow-era UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} was "The City Too Busy to Hate") tend to care less. (That said, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21b2kk5ZQK0 one fairly popular Lebanese song]] from the early 2010s boils down to a straight [[TheCasanova Casanova]]'s complaint that conservatives should shut the fuck up about his womanizing and focus on all the homos in Beirut since at least he will find a wife and have children.)

** In New Orleans, the Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods just downriver from the French Quarter are famously gay. The French Quarter itself has been said to be the world's only entertainment district where both the straights and gays party right next to each other. When you cross St. Anne Street (the "Lavender Line" or the "Suck-sum Dicksum Line"), the bars and clubs suddenly change over from straight to gay. The French Quarter itself is at least partially a gayborhood, for the more well-heeled confirmed bachelors. (For a snapshot in the development of the French Quarter's relationship with the LGBT community, read ''Literature/AConfederacyOfDunces'', listed in "Literature" above.)
** UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}}, Maryland has the neighborhood of Mount Vernon, which is also a designated National Landmark Historic District.
** Rochester, NY has a very large [[https://rocwiki.org/GLBTQ_Community GLBTQ community]] with a ton of history. Most of this population is concentrated in the Southeast Quadrant of the city, particularly the South Wedge, the Neighborhood of the Arts, Park Avenue, and Upper Monroe neighborhoods.

** [[UsefulNotes/{{RichmondVirginia}} Richmond, Virginia]] has the famous Carytown district. Though not as large as some of the other examples listed, it's a major hub for local LGBTQ+ activism. Not surprisingly, it's not far away from Virginia Commonwealth University, AKA [[StrawmanU "The Berkeley of the South."]]

* Danny the Street of ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'' fame is always a sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ no matter what incarnation, fittingly for a character named after drag artist Danny La Rue.

** Beirut is the least gay-unfriendly place in the Arab World and thus has this reputation among Arabs. UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}} is still fairly homophobic on the whole, but Beirutis (who have other problems to worry about, in much the same way that Jim Crow-era UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}} was "The City Too Busy to Hate") tend to care less. (That said, one fairly popular Lebanese song from the early 2010s boils down to a straight [[TheCasanova Casanova]]'s complaint that conservatives should shut the fuck up about his womanizing and focus on all the homos in Beirut since at least he will find a wife and have children.)

** Historically, New Hope, PA (a QuirkyTown[=/=]artists' colony roughly halfway between New York and Philadelphia where the Old York Road crosses the Delaware River, which historically necessitated a ferry crossing) was popular with gay Philadelphians and (to a lesser extent) gay New Yorkers as a weekend/short vacation getaway. This is less pronounced today, but the influence can still be seen.

** Historically, New Hope, PA (a QuirkyTown roughly halfway between New York and Philadelphia where the Old York Road crosses the Delaware) was popular with gay Philadelphians and (to a lesser extent) gay New Yorkers as a weekend/short vacation getaway. This is less pronounced today, but the influence can still be seen.

** UsefulNotes/LosAngeles' West Hollywood, as mentioned earlier. (Strangely, West Hollywood is also home to a large population of fairly conservative Russian Jews and still-more-conservative [[TheMafiya Russian gangsters]], who were probably attracted by the same low rents and--in the case of the gangsters--lax police attitude that attracted the gays.) Los Angeles also has a few minor gayborhoods in the form of Silver Lake and certain stretches of Long Beach.

** UsefulNotes/LosAngeles' West Hollywood, as mentioned earlier. (Strangely, West Hollywood is also home to a large population of fairly conservative Russian Jews and still-more-conservative [[UsefulNotes/TheMafiya Russian gangsters]], who were probably attracted by the same low rents and--in the case of the gangsters--lax police attitude that attracted the gays.) Los Angeles also has a few minor gayborhoods in the form of Silver Lake and certain stretches of Long Beach.