7/12/2010 12:21:10 PM

so you're in the queer promised land now or some shit, right?

7/12/2010 12:21:56 PM

^ This is correct.

7/12/2010 12:22:44 PM

^^as opposed to chapel hill?

7/12/2010 12:25:47 PM

Go to that In and Out Burger on Radford

7/12/2010 12:45:15 PM

Quote :

"^^as opposed to chapel hill?"

Raleigh is where most gay bars/clubs/nightlife are located in this state (none in Chapel Hill), more gay bookstores/retail (none in chapel hill), hosts more Pride weekend events than Chapel Hill, more gay organizations/school clubs/gay rights org such as the main statewide one Equality NC, and a larger population of gay citizens than Chapel Hill both on an absolute scale & as a percentage of the city's whole population.

7/12/2010 1:00:17 PM

what the hell is a gay bookstore? are the books made from gay trees?

[Edited on July 12, 2010 at 1:06 PM. Reason : durrrr]

7/12/2010 1:04:01 PM

As someone who worked in the Financial District in SF for 1.5 years and who spent many a weekend at bars in the Marina District I will say that I didn't notice any more of a gay scene in SF than I do in Raleigh.

I mean, I'm not gay, so I had no desire to go hang out in the Castro on my Friday/Saturday evenings but I guess that is where the perception comes from that everyone in SF must be gay.

The Marina District, for instance, probably has the highest percentage of young professionals (and very hot girls) of any bar scene that I've ever been to... including Chicago and New York City.

7/12/2010 1:05:07 PM

Bars and clubs don't mean shit. Its a fact most of them live in chapel hill

7/12/2010 1:05:45 PM

Quote :

"what the hell is a gay bookstore? are the books made from gay trees?"

haha

7/12/2010 1:41:44 PM

Quote :

"Its a fact most of them live in chapel hill"

What are you basing that on?

I was basing my assertion that Raleigh had a larger gay population than Chapel Hill both on an absolute basis and as a percentage of the total population off based on numbers provided by the Urban Institute which does "nonpartisan economic and social policy research"

Quote :

"what the hell is a gay bookstore? are the books made from gay trees?"

They often have books written by gay authors, or on gay related subject matter, and its also the place one finds rainbow bumper stickers. And like other bookshops, some have coffee/lounge areas so its something of a social gathering place, and they often serve as hubs of information on gay related organizations in a given area kind of like a community center. I can't say that I've ever been to one in Raleigh, but I'm pretty sure I've heard of a few.

Here is an example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde_Bookshop

Quote :

"The Oscar Wilde Bookshop was the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors.[1][2] It was founded by Craig Rodwell in 1967 as the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. Initially located at 291 Mercer Street[3], it later moved to Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, New York, United States. It is named after gay author Oscar Wilde."

[Edited on July 12, 2010 at 2:05 PM. Reason : .]

7/12/2010 2:04:29 PM

what the hell is a gay bookstore? are the books made from gay trees?
what the hell is a gay bookstore? are the books made from gay trees?
what the hell is a gay bookstore? are the books made from gay trees?

7/12/2010 2:05:25 PM

Damn. You're on to us.





[Edited on July 12, 2010 at 2:16 PM. Reason : .]

7/12/2010 2:11:40 PM

So what you are saying, is that a gay bookstore discriminates against heterosexuals.

7/12/2010 2:23:54 PM

Quote :

"So what you are saying, is that a gay bookstore discriminates against heterosexuals."

Please explain how a gay bookstore discriminates against heterosexuals.

7/12/2010 2:28:38 PM

^^Exactly. The "no heterosexuals allowed" posters in the windows are mostly for show, but if you don't know the secret password, they wont let you in.

[Edited on July 12, 2010 at 2:29 PM. Reason : extra ^]

7/12/2010 2:29:06 PM

I thought gay bookstores is where you "hook up" strangers in the bathroom for unprotected, godless sex?

7/12/2010 3:03:05 PM

ok so i dont know how accurate this information is nor how well i am interpretting it, so don't flame me too hard when i try to say this

according to this website (from 2006) raleigh has a "gay index" of 106 while chapel hill is 97
http://www.interstateq.com/archives/1261/

this is pretty damn close.

now populationwise raleigh has ~390,000 and chapel hill ~50,000

taken into consideration isn't it a little more significant that chapel hill is so close to raleighs gay percentage while having far fewer people?


sort of like walking into a room of 400 people where 40 of them are gay, but it seems much more evident walking into a room of 10 people and 3 are gay?

maybe not. im just thinking....

(i would like for everyone to keep in mind i really dont care if raliegh/chapel hill/ durham/ benson/ whatever is higher.....just making conversation )

7/12/2010 3:13:13 PM

BENSON!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

7/12/2010 3:21:30 PM

Quote :

"The basic rule is that the number “100? represents the exact national norm/average. A city with a gay index of 140, for example, would show that the number of gay and lesbian people living in that city is 40% larger than the national norm. A city index of 80, for example, would show that the number was 20% less than the national norm."

Quote :

"raleigh has a "gay index" of 106 while chapel hill is 97"

Yeah, so the site is saying Raleigh is higher than the nation average of gay population, and Chapel Hill is lower than average, even if on the whole they are only 9% apart.

But your point about diversity being easier to spot in a smaller crowd seems to make sense too.

7/12/2010 3:21:43 PM

It's also because UNC is there.

[Edited on July 12, 2010 at 3:23 PM. Reason : That we hate on teh town more than the national average..]

7/12/2010 3:23:01 PM

Quote :

"diversity being easier to spot in a smaller crowd "

thats what i was trying to say. thanks


durrrrrr.


and yes chapel hill is under national average by a small percentage and raleigh is over.
but when you take the population into effect, isnt it more significant that chapel hill is so close with a smaller population?

i can't seem to find the words to describe my self.

lemme think.......

[Edited on July 12, 2010 at 3:26 PM. Reason : rtrtres]

7/12/2010 3:24:35 PM

Quote :

"Raleigh is where most gay bars/clubs/nightlife are located in this state (none in Chapel Hill), more gay bookstores/retail (none in chapel hill), hosts more Pride weekend events than Chapel Hill, more gay organizations/school clubs/gay rights org such as the main statewide one Equality NC"

Well no shit, everyone in Chapel Hill is gay so the stores and clubs out there don't have the need to advertise they are gay oriented, and the 'gay pride' parades are just parades

7/12/2010 3:31:47 PM

you must visit LA and visit all the movie studios, i only got to see universal but it was awesome

7/12/2010 3:41:29 PM

I'm sure Oscar Wilde is rolling in his grave.

7/12/2010 6:33:36 PM

yeah... onto his back



HIYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

7/12/2010 7:31:08 PM

thread successfully derailed

7/12/2010 7:35:48 PM

i heard gay bookstores were where gay lynch mobs meet up to go after all them damn heteros

7/12/2010 9:50:28 PM

I leave for 12 hours and find my thread in ruins.

Its fucking Krispy Kreme, talk about that! Rawr.

7/12/2010 9:55:21 PM

of course raleigh has more gays than chapel hill

seeing as raleigh has nearly 8 times the population of chapel hill.

7/12/2010 10:02:17 PM

Quote :

"They often have books written by gay authors, or on gay related subject matter, and its also the place one finds rainbow bumper stickers. And like other bookshops, some have coffee/lounge areas so its something of a social gathering place, and they often serve as hubs of information on gay related organizations in a given area kind of like a community center. I can't say that I've ever been to one in Raleigh, but I'm pretty sure I've heard of a few."

I didn't know Barnes & Nobel was a gay bookstore.

7/12/2010 11:12:51 PM

7/12/2010 11:14:00 PM

So, where's the gay bookstore in Raleigh?

7/13/2010 3:05:56 AM

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=545571

7/13/2010 8:21:08 AM

^^Indeed. The one I've seen at least from the outside is called White Rabbit. And I think I've heard of another, although I couldn't swear to it.

Quote :

"I didn't know Barnes & Nobel was a gay bookstore."

Haha, too true. Being gay authors/subject material is too mainstream/too assimilated now to really support the old gay bookshop business model any more. The most famous one, the example I gave of the Oscar Wilde Bookshop, died out even in a gay district up in New York. They are becoming a thing of the past. I read in NC's main gay newspaper an interesting article, but the very same assimilation/mainstreamness makes me wonder how well this will work:

http://goqnotes.com/6047/raleighs-avenue-q/

Quote :

"From Manteo to Murphy, there’s few neighborhoods in the running for the title of North Carolina’s best and brightest gayborhood. The capital city’s Warehouse District is the closest thing we’ve got. ... Gay folks have long been attracted to urban and metro areas, a phenomena that led to the creation of such internationally recognized places like The Castro. In order to have a strong neighborhood, though, mustn’t there be good housing? According to the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, center city currently offers about 3,000 residential units and the capacity for downtown living continues to grow. The Warehouse District is still coming into its own. Already full of gay-owned or gay-friendly businesses, the district has yet to experience any large growth in residential development. For example, the Warehouse District’s northern neighbor, Glenwood South, has about 14 residential developments. The central portion of the Warehouse District has only four such developments, while three others exist in the district’s southern outreaches and near Boylan Heights. Among the few Warehouse properties is the new Hue, with over 200 condo units for sale. Located at the corner of Hargett St. and Dawson St., White Rabbit was the first retail business to take a spot in the building’s first floor. Across the street sits The CC and Our Place Video. Legends is next door. Recently, the Hue started reaching out to LGBT homebuyers, even placing a series of advertisements in this paper. Other residential properties in and around the Warehouse District and Downtown include Bloomsbury Estates, The Plaza at RBC Plaza, Quorum Center, 222 Glenwood, WEST on W. North St. and Palladium Plaza. The Warehouse District is home to several other gay-owned and -friendly nightlife establishments, restaurants, coffee shops and more. For nightlife, there’s Tantra and Flex on West St. The Burrough and the nearby Irregardless Cafe are just two of several eateries in the area. On the edge of the Warehouse District, the new LGBT Center of Raleigh recently moved into their temporary space, along with long-established Triangle Community Works. They’ll have their grand opening in April. Just a few blocks down from Hargett St., the gay district’s virtual epicenter, sits Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the area’s largest AIDS service organization. Soon, N.C. State University College of Design’s Contemporary Art Museum will find its new home on Martin St. Bars and nightclubs. Check. Restaurants and other eateries. Check. Retail and recreation. Check. Housing. Check, and still growing. ... And, while the Warehouse District might not be as glamorous or gay-gentrified as other big city gayborhoods, it could be some day."

I do kind of understand it from a marketing/business perspective though in having a one stop shopping area.

7/13/2010 11:20:47 AM

just now saw this...

Quote :

"so you're in the queer promised land now or some shit, right?"

if by "the queer promised land," you mean about 1 mile from the Google campus, then yes.

7/18/2010 10:32:21 PM

^ah, the point where this happened

7/18/2010 10:36:33 PM

Quote :

"Its a fact most of them live in chapel hill""

Quote :

"What are you basing that on?"

You'd have to be gay to go to UNC AMIRITE?!?!?!?!

Quote :

"he nearby Irregardless Cafe are just two of several eateries in the area."

Didn't realize Irregardless was considered a gay business

[Edited on July 19, 2010 at 12:02 AM. Reason : a]

7/18/2010 11:58:38 PM

paerabol:
1/24/2010 3:23:36 PM

Quote :

"It suddenly dawned on me that there was naught but purse-lipped men and handsome groups of women, and not only was I in their territory but my leather jacket, blue jeans, biker boots and helmet most certainly did not fit their Sunday brunch dress code."

For the full story click here:
Irregardless cafe
http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=586812&page=1#13680982

also,

http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/the-gay-life/Content?oid=1195038

Quote :

""It was 1996, and I put an ad in the Independent under 'Women seeking women.' The second woman I met was the one who introduced me to the lesbian club scene. At the time there was a club in Raleigh on Glenwood down by the Rialto that was just for women. That was the first lesbian club I ever went to and even though it was small and kind of a dive, I loved it and I loved being there and included in the community. I liked it so much that I decided to stay here after I left the military." In Raleigh, the discerning eye will see gay people at the Third Place coffeehouse and neighboring Lily's Pizza, or the Irregardless Cage. "

http://www.gayscout.com/queerlife/32830/Irregardless-Cafe

And for those who asked about gay book stores earlier when I mentioned they used to operate as sort of like community centers even if their necessity is dying out these days (from that same indy article):

Quote :

" I spent the better part of the 1990s as manager of White Rabbit Books in Raleigh, a store focused on the gay community. I would tell newcomers suffering from culture shock that the hardest part was getting plugged in. The community was there, you just had to find it. Litwin makes one additional point--that you get out of your community what you put into it. "I think North Carolina has a great community for being a Southern state," she say"

[Edited on July 19, 2010 at 12:42 AM. Reason : .]

7/19/2010 12:34:28 AM