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URBAN SOCIOLOGY (SEMESTER-5) Cultural
Identity, Sexual Liberation and Urban Structure:
Home
THE GAY COMMUNITY IN SAN FRANCISCO
About Me
Immanuel castells , in his seminal work Cultural
Identity,  “Sexual
Liberation and Urban
Structure: THE GAY COMMUNITY IN SAN
FRANCISCO”, published in 1983, shows how gay movement led to
the reconstruction
of urban spaces in America. Plus how do city
Sociology Assignments
spaces provide terrain for social
mobilization.
This is my little attempt of lending a
San Francisco is known as the world’s gay capital. It has been
the city helping hand to all those who struggle
where gays have uniquely succeeded in building up a powerful, to find content while writing answers in
sociology.
complex
,independent community at spatial, economic, cultural and
political levels. Gay men
particularly have been able to achieve View my complete profile

certain amount of power within the

institutional system after
movements. Report Labels

Abuse SEMESTER-5
This
relationship between the gay movement and the city
SEMESTER-6
has major consequences

1.   
The gay territory develops according
to the relationship Blog Archive
between the emerging movement and the counteracting forces December 2021 (3)
and not by forces dominating social and functional patterning
November 2021 (4)
of space.
October 2021 (5)
2.   
Gays need a spatially defined
community for a long period September 2021 (10)
where culture and power can be reformulated in a
process of August 2021 (11)
experimental social interaction and active political July 2021 (4)
mobilization. A
city emerges within a city in a process that
transforms established cultural
values and existing spatial
norms.

Gender aspect- mostly this part is no need to add

A fieldwork was conducted in San Francisco, between
1980 and 1981
with the collaboration of the gay community which provided the
gender dimension of homosexual movement. It was recorded that
gay movement got
momentum in san Francisco whereas lesbians
were excluded. The reason
for not including lesbians was-    Lesbians
tend
not to concentrate in a given territory but establish social and
interpersonal
networks because;

a.    
They are poorer than gay men.

b.   
They have less choice in terms of
work and location.

c.    
Their politics is less directed to
the established political system.

Hence, they are less likely to achieve local power.

Major
difference between men and women in their
relationship to space-

Men have sought to dominate, and one expression of

this domination
has been spatial. On the other hand, women give more importance
to
relationships and their networks are ones of solidarity and affection.
They
tend to create their own rich, inner world and a political
relationship with
the higher societal levels.
While spatial communities and local power seem to be
fundamental
to gay men’s liberation in San Francisco, they are clearly not  so for
lesbians who are more concerned with
the revolution of values than
with the control of institutional power.

The historical Development of the San Francisco as Gay

city

San Francisco has always been an attracted city and a

place where
people were welcoming all with their own personal fantasies.
Homosexuals were scattered there also but In the 1920’s San
Francisco decided
to emerge as the cultural capital of the west, and
grow up in authoritative
shadow of Catholic Church, so deviants
were punished and so, homosexuality was
also mentioned as a evil in
the eyes of religious morality.

About 1.6 million homosexual men and women were

suddenly
uprooted; many were also discharged from military for homosexual
identity. Harvey Milk, a graduate of New York state university, was
not able to
teach because of his discharge in 1956, for homosexuality
like many other gays.

As they were not acceptable in society openly, bars

and cafes became
their place of meetings, so an 
specific ideology raised from this bars 
like ( the Black Cat ) which played a major role in first stage of gay
movement as people gathered there, and discussed about
homosexuals rights.  

 
CHRONOLY OF
THE DEVELOPEMENT OF MOVEMENT

Homosexuals developed bars as their place of meeting

and this
caught the attention of media which also helped to fillip gay
movement
across san Francisco. But the main reason Homosexuals
started their movements was
bar networks and counter-cultural
movements. And finally in the 1959 Mayor,
George Christopher
declared and allowed the city to become then national
headquarters
of organized homosexuals in America.

The local press criticized him for harming the image

of the city. But
now gay community was strong enough to stand for the
homosexual’s rights, 30 gay bars that existed around the city actively
participated in movement i.e. by challenging police by publicizing
some cases
of corruption, but police responded with more
repression, but the community was
strong enough and unstoppable,
so organized marches also in California and
Sacramento in defense
of gay rights. But Still homosexuals suffered.

In 1955 the first openly Lesbian organization was

found it in San
Francisco by The daughters of Bilitis, in 1962 in order to
protect
themselves against police the owners of Gay bars organized the
Tavern
Guild which became one of the basic financial and political
supporters of all
gay activities in San Francisco. This along with few
other developments opened
new vistas for gay community-

1 - for the first time an openly gay leader Harvey

Milk, became a
public official leader.

2- in June 1978 senator Briggs was suggested to banning

homosexuals from
teaching in public schools, after Harvey milk
became a major political figure,
through  campaign with the help of
liberal democrats and neighborhood activities gay community won,
and in
November 1978 Briggs suggestion was rejected by 58 percent
of the Californian
voters and 75 percent of San Francisco, the local
political culture had
thoroughly supported  gay rights,

3-In the April 1978 board of supervisors approved a very liberal Gay
rights
sentence , at the sometime two Lesbian leaders, Del Martin
and Phyllis Lyon
received a certificate of honor for their civic services
including for Lesbians
from the city of San Francisco

But this success came after spate of miseries. On 27

November 1978,
Dan White an ex-policeman killed mayor George Moscone and
Supervisor Harvey Milk by shot them in their office at city hall. The
gay
community marched with candles in silence, but Dan white
sentenced to seven
years prison, the lowest possible penalty. And still
they are agitating , though not with that gusto ,
for their rights.

SOCIAL
MAKING OF GAY TERRITORY

During
cultural revolt of the 1960s, Gay of San Francisco, their
spatial organisation
shifted to specific neighbourhood from bars &
street. The urban residential
structure was profoundly altered. The
gay territory expanded according to a
logic the understanding of
which will be a key element for establishing the
relationship between
cultural transformation & urban form. 

They could not afford living in san Francisco posh areas.  A growing
proportion of middle class gays
ridiculed the idea of setting up in a
ghetto. 
They began to locate themselves, in a very pointed move in
the lower
sections of the fashionable pacific heights, literally on the
threshold of San
Francisco’s elite.

Mid 1970s Two major developments took place -

1.    The Castro

ghetto grew and expanded dramatically in all
adjacent areas.

2.    In a
different way, gay households developed in the working
class areas of Bernal
heights and Potrero Hill.

In Late 1970s, a new expansion of gay residences took place on the

borders of the middle which represented a sexual oriented, a cultural
revolt,
& a political party.

But To be a society within a society, they had to organised

themselves
spatially to transform their oppression into the
organisational setting of
political power. It brought together sexual
identity, cultural, self
–definition, and a political, project in a formal
organised around the control
of a given territory.

The Renovation of Housing & Urban Space by the

Gay
Residential
The process of urban renovation in San Francisco has been largely
triggered by gay people,  as a result
property values in gay residential
areas have been considerably improved. Commercial
& Business
development took place through the gay residential areas.

Three different intervention have contributed to Urban Renovation

in
San Francisco-

1.    Affluent
gay professionals, desiring to move into the gay
territory, hired skilled
renovators to do the job for them once
they had bought the inexpensive houses.

2.    Gay
realtors & interiors decorators discovered the possibilities
of a new
housing market & decided to use it as a way to earn a
living. They bought
property in low cost areas & repaired and
renovated the building in order
to sell them for a high profit.
They
discovered the hard way how to survive the tough San
Francisco housing             market, the gay community provides
90percent of labour in renovation and restoration in central
San Francisco
neighbourhoods.
 3.    Majority
of the gay community could not afford to buy a house
in San Francisco. So they
formed collectives to either rent or
buy inexpensive buildings and fixed them
up themselves.

Gay people have raised the physical standard and economic value of
the
space they have occupied.

 
 

During 1970’s , when gays

felt relatively safe in their space and in
their city as a result of the
political influence they had acquired, they
founded  a whole range of gay organizations , dancing
groups, poetry
clubs, art galleries, counseling clinics.

Golden Gate Business

Association (GGBA), the world’s first business
organization founded by the
LGBTQ community encourages
individual autonomy 
and personal freedom that gays feel are the
basis of their own development.
 

Gay Power -
Transformation of the Local  political
system

By 1980 gay
community transformed to a political power. This
transformation started in 1972,
when George McGovern’s
presidential campaign opened way for their election.
This was the
time when many social issues were coming in movements and the
Gay
rights were among them.

In order to obtain support from the gay community, he started

a gay-
oriented political organization under the leadership of Jim Forster
which
was named as ‘’Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club. On the other
side, the opposition parties were also started campaign to gain votes
in their
favor.

Harvey Milk started his own campaign to establish an

autonomous
political platform for gays and got 17,000 votes in 1973 and 53,000
votes in 1975 but lost the election as he only received 45 percent of
the total
votes. During this period,  “Alice B.
Toklas Democratic
Club” decided to established another Gay Democratic Club
where
explicit gayness became the symbol of these manifesto. And so in
1976, Harvey
Milk also established another club which became the
largest and the most
active-single gay community club. Several
supervisors elected in the period of
1975 to 1980 needed the support
of the Gay community which led to the rise of
the Gay community in
power.

Later on, Harvey

Milk got elected as the supervisor of the local
political system who was
murdered. But after his murder HARRY
BRITT replaced him, who was appointed by
Harvey. Harry Britt was
one of the active supervisors on variety of possessive
issue. He was
highly supported by the gay community as he clearly represented
them.
Thus, the club support and endorsement allowed him to be
easily elected in 1979
and re-elected in 1980. But still 
in his presence
on supervisor’s post, the influence of the gays were not
correspond in
the political system as their influence was based on the threats
given 
by their opposition. Then In 1979,
Diane Feinstein joined in this
mayoral race where she was against a gay
candidate but still got
elected because the votes were mostly given by the
gay  community
in exchange of some
promises. This also included giving them
recruitment in the police department
and shows how gay community
made their position prominent in political arena.

 
Emergence of
gay as a political power and urban
development-
The changes triggered by the expansion of gay culture
because major
contribution towards the improvement of the city quality of life.
New
gay households account for a significant proportion of the renovation
of
old building, for repair and maintenance of other sections of the
city.  Apart from this, the impact can be seen in the
well-being
designed treatment of semi-public spaces between the front door and
the pavement.
In short, architectural improvement took place.  

Changes in
the urban space

The improvement of the urban space which is brought by

the gay
community might be a representation od a new form of residential
displacement and social inequality. During
1970, there were
decisively street life, popular celebrations, joyful feasts
got increased
as the consequence of the gay presence. Although, most urbanists
seem to
value public life, street activity and intense social interaction
was one of
the most distinctive positive dimensions of city life.
 While
in history, cities have been spaces of diversity and
communication. And when
the communication ends, or diversity is
swallowed by social segregation – the
urban culture is endangered.
 

In 1981, the ‘sadomasochist culture’ got famous. The

movement
rapidly increased and was used as gay component during that time.
As this
movement got increased as an ideological movement as the
gay leaders were
trying to showcase the society the ‘define norms
which was socially accepted’.
The movement got ‘no limits’ as there
was violence, attack, slave auctions,
leather dress, Nazi uniforms,
chains and whips were more than sexual stimuli or
games.  Although,
there was also a fact that
sadomasochist movement have a tiny part
which support the gay community while
mostly of sadomasochist
movement participants are heterosexual. So, in the
cultural ghetto,
the gay community is unlikely to accomplish the sexual
revolution
which is its majority social project.

The Political
Movement

As said, the bridges between the gay community and the

social
change could be built by the ‘political movement’. There were
two
possible forms of political collaboration between groups.

Firstly, the American culture of coalitional politics

in which interests
are defined and everybody tries to benefit from the
political bargain.
The experience of San Francisco made it almost impossible
situation
for the gay community to reconcile its interests to all the other
organization and institutions.

Secondly, a political alliance could have been

established on the basis
of long –run political interests which was based on
the common and
essential concern of transforming the cultural-economic
structure
which was at the same time sexist, homophobic, sexually-repressed
and
capitalist.     
The gay community didn’t proceeded in the direction
given by the
political movement. Instead of building new hegemonic culture
including the homogenous based on ideologically and politically that
led to
transformation.

So, it tries to develop an autonomous power to

negotiate its demands
within the institutional and political system.Thus, this
strategy could
be successful if the demands and interests of the gays were
compatible with the dominant American culture.
And this is not been so  because they implicitly attack a basic social
institution which is the family. If the gays are strong enough to
replace the
family with another form of human organization that
would expand at a social level.

at
September 20, 2021

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