Alex Bitterman - The Life and Afterlife of Gay Neighborhoods : Renaissance and Resurgence

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I am honored to introduce readers to The Life and Afterlife of Gay Neighborhoods: Renaissance and Resurgence (Springer, 2021) edited by Alex Bitterman and Daniel Baldwin Hess. This important work summarizes years of sustained research about how LGBTQ+ people inhabit and interact with urban space, forming gay neighborhoods (or gayborhoods) that have been a hallmark in recent decades of gay urban life. In the recent past, before gay neighborhoods such as we conceive of them today, gay bars provided one venue for LGBTQ+ people to visit and learn about themselves. These bars were often located in isolated and dangerous locations and were often raided by police. However, greater physical safety made it easier for larger numbers of LGBTQ+ individuals to begin to form communities. In Montral, for example, this happened in the early 1980s. The gay village in Montral had changed a great deal over the years, and throughout my own research, I interviewed many LGBTQ+ people who helped me to better understand their contributions to creating safe community spacesfledgling gay neighborhoodsbased on the various visions of what they wanted. Their energy was contagious. When these early pioneers and business owners had a creative idea, they went for it. It was a cast of different characters doing different things and their efforts built the neighborhoods we know today.