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Tolerance, Creatives and Policy

What lessons can be drawn from the work presented above? Why is tolerance important? Can cities implement policies that affect tolerance? What implications does this research have for future scholarship? First, the major contribution of this work is an understanding and model of how tolerance manifests in United States cities. The four-stage model presents a overview of how gay and lesbian social movements affect policy change and tolerance. This is important, because it points to the organic nature of political processes behind tolerance that Florida argues is vital for human capital centers. Cities like Austin and San Francisco have had long histories of social movements, with today’s resulting political and social tolerance as an after effect. The four-stage process presents policymakers with a dilemma: how do you become a tolerant metropolis if the process involves an organic social movement? Can a city implement a domestic partnership registry and thus become tolerant? Doubtful.

Civil rights ordinances are the outcome of this process, not the spark. Centrally planned gay districts for cities, say in the emergence stage, would most probably be met with intolerance. However, the model does present policymakers and fledgling gay and lesbian urban movements a path to spur tolerance. For instance, cities in the emerging stage would benefit from funding gay and lesbian centers that incubate the urban social movement and other organizations similar to the University Y in Austin. Cities in the consolidation stage could establish a gay district and ensure that police are trained in anti-gay harassment. Future research could present specific policy suggestions for each stage.

Second, the curious relationship between creatives and ‘diversity’ is clearer. In Florida’s work, he places emphasis on both residential and commercial venues as important outlets for the Creative Class. That is, creatives want to live and play in diverse scenes. The research above shows that creatives only consume diverse scenes, suggesting that the emphasis for city development ought to be on developing scenes as opposed to residential opportunities for creatives in diverse areas. This strategy would be a win-win for cities seeking to spur economic development in minority-concentrated areas but also wanting to avoid gentrification. If creatives are seeking entertainment and consumption outlets with different cultures, but overwhelmingly live suburban areas, then development could focus on creating strong diversity-rich boutique, arts, culture and entertainment experiences. The focus of these spaces should be on interaction, or ‘rubbing shoulders.’

Third, gay and lesbian organizations seeking to change the social and political tolerance of their cities could use this as a model for policy change. Space plays an important role in both the formation of a strong gay urban identity and in electoral politics. Focusing on precinct strategies, get out the vote efforts and other neighborhood-based efforts are important for the political success of urban gay and lesbian movements. In both Austin and San Francisco, the strength of the neighborhood-based politics proved decisive in implementing and defending key civil rights ordinances in the 1970s and 1980s. Additionally, this work could provide the basis for a different role for gay and lesbian community centers. As gay and lesbian identity has consolidated nationally to a great extent, the need for free spaces is less today than two to three decades ago.

As in the case of Austin, gay and lesbian community centers without strong bases in social services such as HIV/AIDS are finding it harder to operate in an environment where gay identity is formed and somewhat diffused into specific areas (gay Catholics, PFLAG, sports, domestic violence, politics, etc). Rather, gay and lesbian community centers should turn to community development. With the rise of assimilation and fears of gay identity and spaces being lost, a gay community center could act as a community development corporation to help guide and possibly preserve gay spaces and their history.