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Above, I presented a mini case-study of Austin’s urban gay and lesbian social movement. Today, Austin is considered the most progressive city in Texas, and perhaps the entire southwest and southeast. Does Austin’s progression to a tolerant city, fit with social movement theory. Also, does it match aspects of Castro? I believe it does. From 1965 to 2000, the movement progressed through identifiable stages each with tolerance implications. Above, I identified those stages, based upon works from Catells, Collins and others, as emergence, consolidation, expansion and assimilation. In what follows, I discuss how Austin fits each of these stages, using data from above and representing it with a map containing spatial locations of known gay spaces, a visual social network node figure (adapted from Moody and White 2003) and report the growing number of gay institutions (bars, organizations, etc) by bar charts.

Emergence

Figure 1 presents the emergence of Austin’s gay and lesbian social movement. As the social node model depicts, lesbians (the top half) were loosely connected through a feminist identity while gay men (lower half) were tied to spatial locations like bars and adult venues downtown. Those locations are on the map. During the early stages, downtown hosted the fledgling gay identity and the University of Texas contained the feminist networks. While there was no gay neighborhood, 6th street had perhaps the strongest residential location of gay men. The area had extremely low property values, visible crime and was considered a complete perversion of space by city hall. This fits with Collins (2004) who maintains that most gay business areas begin as high crime, sexually dissident spaces, consistent with prostitution and sex clubs. Most of the gay clubs and bars were near this area, which had little political visibility until the 1970s when urban renewal and downtown development swept across America. Until the mid 1970s, the gay and lesbian identity was disparate.

Consolidation

In 1969, the Stonewal riots sparked national political activism in gay and lesbian rights. In Austin, GLF, GLW and then ALO and GCS were formed. Together, the organizations used free spaces and nodes, which exploded through out the 1970s (as shown in the bar chart in Figure 2). As the organizations and businesses increased, so did the visibility of the gay community, especially through the help on gay and lesbian newsletters and magazines. These sources of news and information created an additional layer of networking that enabled the consolidation of gay and lesbian identity into specific spaces, and the ability of these organizations to launch activism. Residentially, the newspapers assisted in the development of a discernable gay residential community in the downtown area surrounding the 6th street gay businesses (Connections 1975). Figure 2 displays the map of these businesses. Through the work of ALO, Austin saw the adoption of pro-gay civil rights which began to bring the disparate identities together. As shown by the social node figure, key physical free spaces located downtown and near the University of Y enabled strong discussions of identity. Later in the 1970s, identity consolidated mostly through the organizing work of these centers and ALGPC. ALO, GCS, and ALGPC created strong networks with other identity groups including human rights and feminism. Despite the success of ALO and later ALGPC, the 6th street community was redeveloped in the interest of tax revenue and a more wholesome environment. The disparate identities of lesbians and gays most likely prevented an organized push to save the 6th street corridor. Being grounded in an anti-pornographic, feminist background, ALO focused on political change rather than economic.

Expansion

Where as the movement only counted women and general human rights groups as allies in the 1970s, the work by ALGPC expanded the social movement to include African American, health, Hispanics, and state political groups. Figure 3 represents the expansion phase. The rise of the Austin Latino/Latina Lesbian and Gay Organization (ALLGO), the Austin Aids Project, and nearly 20 sport and social groups points to an expansion of the movement into these other circles. Residentially, ALGPC’s neighborhood work focused on key areas north, east and downtown that were known as gay neighborhoods (Connections 1975; Texas Triangle 1990). These neighborhoods, represented by shaded areas, proved key in electoral battles for city council and ultimately the removal of Mayor McClellan. To demonstrate political power, ALGPC used candidate screening and endorsements, which were then distributed via mail to gay residents in these key areas. The rise of endorsement requests from 1 to nearly 50 in the span of a decade evidences the powerful impact ALGPC had on city politics.

Beyond the residential expansion of the known gay and lesbian community, the diversity of organizations increased. In 1970s, bars and retail made up over half the gay and lesbians institutions. In the 1980s, organizations more than doubled from 13 to 32. Of note was the rise in religious and professional groups, like a Gay Nurse Health Network and Dignity, the gay Catholics groups. News sources also increased rapidly, more than tripling from 2 to 7. The building strength of the community and expansion meant that the need for gay space as a free space was diminishing. Gay bars continued to be popular, but gay and lesbian community centers and other similar projects could barely keep support. GCS, Austin Lambda, and two other community centers closed during this expansion. Opposite the failure of these centers, single-issue focused groups, like ALGPC and ALLGO, continued to grow as the social movement expanded into other spheres of Austin.

This expansive period also saw regional national tolerant effects. With Austin policies nearly under control, Austin activists turned their attention to the state and national conventions of Democrats. Activists attended both as delegates resulting in policy change. ALGPC also extended tolerant policies into HIV/AIDS, public accommodations, domestic violence, hate crimes and crime enforcement. Despite the expansion of Austin’s gay community, it saw a number of political and economic setbacks through discrimination which were overcome using neighborhood spatial organizing strategies. These setbacks point to the ‘messiness’ of social movements. Consolidation and expansion are not always mutually exculsive.
Assimilation

From the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, the original 6th street businesses replete with porn stores, adult theaters and gay and lesbian alternative businesses, were replaced by the fern bar and later the ‘dive.’ The original sexualized space of the gay community was de-sexed, and the remaining bars moved to the east in the warehouse district. Figure 4 displays these trends. The 6th street community also saw a rise in mix-used loft and condo development, populated mostly by yuppie-like demographics and trendy restaurants. The Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce serves the role that gay and lesbian centers played in the 1970s and 1980s as a convener of gay supportive businesses. No news source exists that matches the caliber of the gay Austin or the Texas Triangle. No central community center has been able to maintain support for more than a year or two. While there are more political organizations, they tend to be state or national focused, with chapters of the Human Rights Campaign or the Stonewall Democrats. Only one store sells gay and lesbian related merchandise as its sole venture, but mostly borders on adult and porn-orientated sales. In 2006, there were three gay bars located in walking distance of each other, but their concentration has not resulted in the creation of a gay district. Residents and business owners do not want a gay ‘ghetto’ (Triangle 1998).

Residentially, gays and lesbians have expanded beyond two or three neighborhoods, calling over a dozen home. As Nelson commented, ‘We live anywhere from Round Rock to South Austin, and between” (Nelson 2007). There are still concentrations, notably in Crestview and Travis heights, but it is hard to point to a specific area and call it ‘gay’ as one could during the 1970s and 1980s. Nelson attributes the expansion of gays–and their invisibility–to the rise of gay realtors. Laughing, she comments that “Gay realtors are a dime a dozen.” These realtors steer gays and lesbians to open neighborhoods, but as Nelson points out, the decision factor is not necessarily where we live anymore, but price and crime (ibid). However, downtown remains the central focal point for nearly all the organizations. One location (a mail center) contains the addresses of 30 organizations, suggesting that downtown is still a central point, at least to locate an organization. Without physical office space, these organizations no longer operate free spaces for gays to be safe. Rather, the emphasis is on networking for social and business purposes. Gay people still share an overarching identity, but it is now one of a multiplicity of identities. Gays and lesbians are now an adopted part of Austin’s identity.