From the Wikipedia entry on gay village (as it stands this morning):
A gay village (also known as a gay neighborhood, gay ghetto, and by the slang gayborhood) is an urban geographic location with generally recognized boundaries where a large number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people live or frequent. Gay villages often contain a number of gay-oriented establishments, such as gay bars and gay pubs, nightclubs, bathhouses, restaurants, and bookstores.
The useful portmanteau gayborhood has been around for some time — it’s hard to tell how long — and is common in some LGBT publications, for instance in the travel writing in Instinct magazine (aimed at gay men). From the February 2011 issue:
[on Brussels] Most of the gay watering holes are located in the Saint-Jacques (near the Grand Place), the city’s gayborhood, so barhopping is pretty easy. (p. 41)
Stepping Outside the Gayborhood [Oak Lawn] in Dallas (p. 44)
Some other North American examples: West Hollywood, Davie Village in Vancouver, the Gay Village (Le Village) in Montreal, Boystown in Chicago, South Beach in Miami Beach, Dupont Circle in Washington DC, the South End in Boston, the Short North in Columbus OH, Church and Wellesley in Toronto, Greenwich Village in NYC, Hillcrest in San Diego, the Castro in San Francisco.
February 20, 2011 at 10:03 am |
And then there’s GaYBOR; according to the Wikipedia entry, “GaYbor is an unincorporated neighborhood [i.e. gayborhood], business district, and business organization located within Ybor City in Tampa, Florida.”
For more entertainment, google on “Won’t you be my gaybor?” (Mr. Rogers!).