OutInform: Houston Pride Guide 2015 Issue | Page 36

Spin, a neighborhood landmark that featured a huge dance
floor and amateur drag night, recently closed and was replaced
by a whiskey bar. The nightclub is just one of several of the
city's big gay nightclubs to bite the dust in recent years, notes
Jim Bissonnette, a bartender at Boystown's Little Jim's and
longtime neighborhood resident.

THE INTERNET ALSO HAS
DIMINISHED THE DRAW OF
THE GAYBORHOOD.

"Just what none of us wanted to see happen has happened," Thomas
says. "The real estate went through the roof, the people who live here
became wealthier and the baby buggies became more predominant.
And what that did is force a lot of the gay population to other
neighborhoods in the city and elsewhere."
The nearby Chicago suburb of Berwyn has sought to take advantage of
rising prices and growing acceptance.

"The younger generation wants their bars shiny," Bissonette
says as he stands behind the bar at the dimly lit tavern that
draws an older clientele.
The Internet also has diminished the draw of the gayborhood.
For a younger generation, chat rooms, dating web sites or
apps like Grindr that help gay men set up casual encounters
increasingly are seen as more comfortable spaces to meet
other men, observes Mark Thomas, who has owned several
businesses in the community over the years.

PRICED OUT
Perhaps an even greater factor influencing the changing face
of Boystown and gay enclaves throughout the country has
been gentrification.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the neighborhood was
plagued by gangs and crime. That meant the real estate was
cheap and landlords — desperate for tenants — were less likely
to discriminate against the gay men who gravitated to the
neighborhood.
In Boystown, as it did in gay enclaves such as New York's West
Village and San Francisco's Castro District, the LGBT influx led
to revitalization in the housing stock, an influx of new business
and ultimately the gentrification of a once less than desirable
community.
But in time, some of the gay population in Boystown —
particularly those who didn't buy real estate when it was
cheap — were priced out as the neighborhood rebounded and
rents soared.

36 OUTINFORM

pridehouston.org

In an ongoing marketing campaign, the town of about 57,000 about
eight miles from downtown has touted its relatively inexpensive
housing. It also boasts of having one of the highest concentrations of
same-sex households in the state and is among the state leaders in
issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples since Illinois legalized
gay marriage.
Berwyn also has sent emissaries to Gay Pride and other events in
Boystown to make the case to gays and lesbians to consider moving to
the blue-collar suburb.
"People just want to live a good comfortable life," said Amy Crowther, an
official at the non-profit Berwyn Development Corp. "They want places
to go, things to do and they want a good home, and Berwyn has that.
There's an openness here. We're not homogeneous."

"PEOPLE JUST
WANT TO
LIVE A GOOD
COMFORTABLE
LIFE,"
SAID AMY
CROWTHER,