Queers vs Techies
San Francisco is seen by many as an essentially ‘gay’ or ‘queer’ city. Countless travel blogs aimed at the queer community have called it the ‘gay capital’ or ‘gay Mecca’ of the world. The city is filled with sites of significance to LGBT+ culture, particularly gay/lesbian bars and sites of importance to Harvey Milk, one of US’s first openly gay politicians. San Francisco Travel also ran a tourism campaign with the tagline “San Francisco’s gay district is called ‘San Francisco’”.
Consequently, this presentation of San Francisco as an inherently queer city as seen thousands of LGBTQ+ tourists flock to the city every year. These presentations seek to paint a picture of San Francisco as a city that is welcoming towards the LGBTQ+ community.
However, in recent years the idea of San Francisco as an inherently queer city seems no longer fitting. The city still bears pride flags but now it seems more of a facade than a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community.
San Francisco is now home to employees of large tech communities. These ‘techies’ now populate bars that had been traditionally home to the queer community. Even the ‘gay’ district of San Francisco is not spared. New tech buyers have caused the prices of real estate in Castro to soar to ridiculously high prices. The queer residents of the area, mostly belonging to the middle class, were forced to move out, giving way to tech millionaires.
The city is also no longer as welcoming as it used to be. As the gay community in San Francisco disperses, the city is becoming less safe for the LGBTQ+ community as members of the community are beginning to face more harassment than they used to.
This change is largely in part to the essentialisation of San Francisco as a ‘gay city’. In the late 1990s, San Francisco’s uniqueness made it a target for gentrification. This led to the queer community being pushed out of a city they once called home. A prime example is the closure of gay/lesbian bars as rising costs of living pushes out these beloved parts of San Francisco.
Essentialising San Francisco as a ‘gay city’ is destructive as it ignores the change currently going on in the city and has lead to the queer residents losing their safe space.
