Brighton and Sussex Sexualities Network

‘Gay-friendly’ neighbourhoods: towards understanding social cohesion across sexual difference in two Australian neighbourhoods

Friday, 28th of March, 6pm,  ‘Pokeno Pies’ (upstairs), 52 Gardner Street, Brighton, BN1 1UN

Dr Andrew Gorman-Murray, Research Fellow, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia 

Abstract

This paper examines experiences and processes of social cohesion across sexual difference in Australian neighbourhoods which are espoused as ‘gay-friendly’. This investigation contributes to two related bodies of research – work on the maintenance of social cohesion in neighbourhoods, and research into the development of gay neighbourhoods and their role in non-heterosexuals’ well-being. Social cohesion is a key theme in neighbourhood research. Recent concern with social cohesion in Australian neighbourhoods has concentrated on ethnicity and ‘race’ as vectors of disintegration and inclusiveness, but this focus occludes other critical dimensions of difference. In this light, I assert that sexuality must be integrated into arguments about social cohesion in Australian neighbourhoods. To demonstrate why, I focus on ‘gay-friendly neighbourhoods’ – localities which have a heterosexual majority in residential and commercial terms, but where there is also a widely recognised presence of non-heterosexual residents and businesses that are welcomed in the neighbourhood. In contrast to discrete ‘gay ghettos’ – the focus of earlier research – gay-friendly neighbourhoods engender interaction, understanding and integration between heterosexual and non-heterosexual residents. To better understand these processes of communication and cohesion, I present case studies of two gay-friendly neighbourhoods – the inner-city Sydney suburb of Newtown, New South Wales, and the regional town of Daylesford, Victoria. Utilising various empirical data – including local media commentaries and interviews with non-heterosexual and heterosexual residents – I provide exploratory discussions of social cohesion across sexual difference in these neighbourhoods. Comparing the case studies, I find similar characteristics in the morphology and maintenance of gay-friendly neighbourhoods which cut across their different (metropolitan and regional) locations.