Boston's Gay Scene (Cambridge, Boylston, Washington: apartment, houses, neighborhoods)

[aries4118]

I am interested in learning more about Boston's Gay Scene:

1. Which neighborhoods are gay-friendly or have many gay "amenities" (bookstores, shops, bars, clubs, etc)?

2. How is the social/bar/club scene in Boston?

3. Are there gay sports leagues?

4. Boston has a lot of diversity (black, white, ethnic-white, hispanic, brazilian, cape verdean, etc.). How do the different ethnicities interact in the gay scene? Is there a lot of segregation? Is interracial dating common (or rare) in Boston's gay scene?
(If you are wondering why I'm asking all these questions, I'm coming from a place in the U.S. that has a very segregated scene!)

All comments are welcome! Thank you in advance.

[xS☺B☺s]

www.bostonpride.org (broken link)

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by Bostonian08

www.bostonpride.org (broken link)

Thank you!

Everyone else, feel free to post!

[goyguy]

The "gayborhood" in Boston is the South End, historically the poor stepchild to the Back Bay but ubertrendy from the '80s on. The Boston Center for the Arts anchors one end of the part of Tremont St that runs through the area, with bars and restaurants "to be seen in" lining that artery as well as Washington St and Columbus Ave. More recent times have seen a major spike in population proportion by yuppies and college students. As is true in many other cities, Gay men colonize and beautify a down-and-out community along with artists only to be priced out when its appeal crosses over. But with Beantown's thousands of "guppies" as well as guys who bought in when it was cheap and stayed, there'll be rainbow flags galore in the South End for the foreseeable future.

Dorchester, the largest section of Boston in geographic area - containing seventeen (!) distinct neighborhoods within its borders - has become a popular nesting place. The Ashmont Grill and 224 Boston St restaurants are Gay-operated, and are well patronized by all kinds of folks. House restorers have had a field day with the ornate Victorians in sections such as Jones Hill and Ashmont. Suburbanite wannabe's love their colonials or ranch houses in Codman Hill, Neponset, and Cedar Grove. And Dorchester's "trademark" apartment house, the roomy "3-decka," has a big fan club. The BLGT numbers have increased enough that there's mainstream joking (in good fun and otherwise) about "Door Chess Terr," said exaggeratedly to emphasize the non-native pronunciation - which would be "Dahhchesta" - and with a flap of the wrist. Because racial problems brought on by White flight that accelerated with Boston's school-busing wars were fueling a lot of tensions, a good many of Dorchester's long-time Caucasian residents are actually tempering or losing their homophobia. They'd rather have some well-off Euro-American "kweeyas" fixing up the "3-decka" on the "cahna" than see any, ahem, Asians or Blacks or Hispanics move in.

Jamaica Plain has been the area of choice for Lesbians for many years, along with numerous Gay men. It's historically an oasis of tolerance where ethnicity is concerned, has an eclectic - though lately yuppifying and chain-store attracting - main street, and can claim the scenic Jamaica Pond park (at least the eastern portion) as its own. With rents skyrocketing around there, a lot of priced-out people are resettling in Roslindale, immediately to the south.

The soccer, basketball, softball, swimming, and volleyball programs in Boston's BLGT community have the highest rate of sports participation. Check the "Bay Windows" and "In Newsweekly" papers for complete listings, or even the mainstream "Improper Bostonian." The Gay Men's Chorus has an extensive, social-boundary-leaping, following and regularly has gigs in suburbia. Political participation is a big draw, particularly around the ongoing marriage controversy (see MassEquality.org for more on that one.) All sorts of other activities, from gender-neutral swing dancing to Jewish religious services to gamers' gatherings, are there for the taking too.

Boston's bar scene is in decline, thanks largely to Internet "dating" sites and improving social assimilation. A few places still hang on and do well in the South End, The Alley downtown (off Washington St, not the strip of hetero clubs off Boylston) fills on weekends as does "Machine" near Fenway Park, and the Paradise in Cambridge remains a draw. The major social negative in this city has always been "Boston attitude," the practice of holding up a wall while primping and posing and not acknowledging the existence of anybody else. It's easy to see how finding like-minded persons on the 'net, for free and without smoke and booze and overamplified atrocious "deep house trance" music, as well as through all the volunteer and social opportunities, could put a dent in bar business.

Where "diversity" is concerned, the trend persists of people "staying with their own kind," with the assumption being that if you take up with someone who doesn't look like you ethnically you must have a fetish for people from that group. Strange how you don't hear that as much about all the straight White guys who can't get enough of Asian women, but there it is. If you're looking for a city where the rainbow flag flies true to its original meaning, Boston isn't the one.

Despite all that, this Gay goy guy has no plans to leave!

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by goyguy

The "gayborhood" in Boston is the South End, historically the poor stepchild to the Back Bay but ubertrendy from the '80s on. The Boston Center for the Arts anchors one end of the part of Tremont St that runs through the area, with bars and restaurants "to be seen in" lining that artery as well as Washington St and Columbus Ave. More recent times have seen a major spike in population proportion by yuppies and college students. As is true in many other cities, Gay men colonize and beautify a down-and-out community along with artists only to be priced out when its appeal crosses over. But with Beantown's thousands of "guppies" as well as guys who bought in when it was cheap and stayed, there'll be rainbow flags galore in the South End for the foreseeable future.

Dorchester, the largest section of Boston in geographic area - containing seventeen (!) distinct neighborhoods within its borders - has become a popular nesting place. The Ashmont Grill and 224 Boston St restaurants are Gay-operated, and are well patronized by all kinds of folks. House restorers have had a field day with the ornate Victorians in sections such as Jones Hill and Ashmont. Suburbanite wannabe's love their colonials or ranch houses in Codman Hill, Neponset, and Cedar Grove. And Dorchester's "trademark" apartment house, the roomy "3-decka," has a big fan club. The BLGT numbers have increased enough that there's mainstream joking (in good fun and otherwise) about "Door Chess Terr," said exaggeratedly to emphasize the non-native pronunciation - which would be "Dahhchesta" - and with a flap of the wrist. Because racial problems brought on by White flight that accelerated with Boston's school-busing wars were fueling a lot of tensions, a good many of Dorchester's long-time Caucasian residents are actually tempering or losing their homophobia. They'd rather have some well-off Euro-American "kweeyas" fixing up the "3-decka" on the "cahna" than see any, ahem, Asians or Blacks or Hispanics move in.

Jamaica Plain has been the area of choice for Lesbians for many years, along with numerous Gay men. It's historically an oasis of tolerance where ethnicity is concerned, has an eclectic - though lately yuppifying and chain-store attracting - main street, and can claim the scenic Jamaica Pond park (at least the eastern portion) as its own. With rents skyrocketing around there, a lot of priced-out people are resettling in Roslindale, immediately to the south.

The soccer, basketball, softball, swimming, and volleyball programs in Boston's BLGT community have the highest rate of sports participation. Check the "Bay Windows" and "In Newsweekly" papers for complete listings, or even the mainstream "Improper Bostonian." The Gay Men's Chorus has an extensive, social-boundary-leaping, following and regularly has gigs in suburbia. Political participation is a big draw, particularly around the ongoing marriage controversy (see MassEquality.org for more on that one.) All sorts of other activities, from gender-neutral swing dancing to Jewish religious services to gamers' gatherings, are there for the taking too.

Boston's bar scene is in decline, thanks largely to Internet "dating" sites and improving social assimilation. A few places still hang on and do well in the South End, The Alley downtown (off Washington St, not the strip of hetero clubs off Boylston) fills on weekends as does "Machine" near Fenway Park, and the Paradise in Cambridge remains a draw. The major social negative in this city has always been "Boston attitude," the practice of holding up a wall while primping and posing and not acknowledging the existence of anybody else. It's easy to see how finding like-minded persons on the 'net, for free and without smoke and booze and overamplified atrocious "deep house trance" music, as well as through all the volunteer and social opportunities, could put a dent in bar business.

Where "diversity" is concerned, the trend persists of people "staying with their own kind," with the assumption being that if you take up with someone who doesn't look like you ethnically you must have a fetish for people from that group. Strange how you don't hear that as much about all the straight White guys who can't get enough of Asian women, but there it is. If you're looking for a city where the rainbow flag flies true to its original meaning, Boston isn't the one.

Despite all that, this Gay goy guy has no plans to leave!

Wow, thank you so much, goy guy!

One other question (you may have already hinted at this)...would you say that it's hard to meet people in Boston and/or find dates? Does everything revolve around the internet?
(I'm not only trying to get a feel for Boston's scene, but also how things work in the U.S. in general. I've been out of the country for several years...in a country where meeting people revolved more around clubs, bars, parties, or other social settings.)