ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the ways in which what Nast calls queer patriarchy has reinforced the gendered, classed, and raced divisions of urban space. It explores how gentrification has been both the product of the creation of gay spaces and a tool in their dissolution, indicating that however mainstream gay culture and policies like gay marriage have become in certain geographic contexts, the ultimate goal of neoliberal policy is co-optation rather than liberation, with gay spaces marketed as cosmopolitan spectacle. Queer spaces serve as the entry point for transgender people. Queer theory offers us alternative ways to think about space, community, and justice to counter the narrative of the gayborhood as a driver of gentrification and develop forms of resistance. The people now most in danger of displacement from the gayborhood are also those paving the way towards queer futurity, rethinking notions of identity, family, and belonging in ways that are empowering and expansive.
