Mapping gay and lesbian neighborhoods using home advertisements: Change and continuity in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Statistical Area over three decades

Andrew H Whittemore and Michael J Smart

Environment and Planning A, 2016, vol. 48, issue 1, 192-210

Abstract: Determining the spatial distribution of gay and lesbian households is relevant to understanding gay and lesbian identity and empowerment, and it has been a goal for geographers over the past half century. Our paper answers to calls for investigations of gay and lesbian geography beyond traditional enclaves. We use 9210 street addresses of advertised rental and for-sale properties posted between 1986 and 2012 in the gay and lesbian-oriented Dallas Voice to map historical changes in the spatial distribution of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Statistical Area’s gay and lesbian population. We show how gay and lesbian markets contrast with those of all Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Statistical Area renters and homeowners, and consider our data in light of Dallas Voice coverage of how the location of the gay and lesbian population has shifted. Among other things, we find that advertisements have come to feature properties further from gay bars, and in census tracts of higher income, education levels, and rents, but that these advertisements also have consistently featured properties in census tracts with older construction and a higher proportion of same-sex coupled households. Our findings provide evidence of dispersion from old enclaves and reclustering in new areas, suggesting both lesser attachment to traditional enclaves, and the continuing importance of proximity to each other for gay and lesbian households.

Keywords: Gay neighborhoods; real estate; urban enclaves (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X15605095 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:48:y:2016:i:1:p:192-210

DOI: 10.1177/0308518X15605095

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning A
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().