Gender and Space: Lesbian and Gay Men in the City.

In the past two decades gay neighborhoods have become familiar parts of the urban landscape. Although these areas may include lesbians, gay men dominate their distinct subcultures, their businesses and their residences, their street life and their political activities. In the book " The City and the Grassroots," author Manuel Castells argues that the predominance of gay men in the creation of distinctly homosexual urban neighborhoods reflects a profound gender difference. In relationship to space, gay men and lesbians, he says, behave first and foremost as men and women. The main purpose of the paper is to clarify the ambiguities surrounding the existence and significance of spatial concentration among lesbians in urban communities. In order to do so, the paper attempts to replicate Castells' method of analysis as closely as possible in a study of lesbian community in the U.S. city. While the paper rejects Castells' characterization of the gender differences between gay men and lesbians, there are important dimensions along which gay men and lesbians may relate differently to urban space and urban politics. These differences do reflect the fact that lesbians are women.