Gayborhoods: Economic development and the concentration of same-sex couples in neighborhoods within large American cities

Abstract

This paper uses census tract data from the 2000 and 2010 U.S. Censuses and the 2005-2009 American Community Survey to examine the locations of gay male and lesbian partnerships in 38 large U.S. cities. Gay men and lesbians are less segregated than African Americans and lesbians are less spatially concentrated than gay men. There is little evidence to support the common assertion that gays concentrate in more racially and ethnically diverse neighborhoods. We find evidence supporting the popular notion that concentrations of gay men lead to more rapid development of central city neighborhoods. Census tracts that start the decade with more gay men experience significantly greater growth in household incomes (and, therefore, presumably housing prices) and greater population growth over the next decade than those census tracts with fewer gay men. Census tracts with more lesbians at the start of the decade see no difference in population or income growth.