New Evidence From Census 2020 on the Residential Segregation of Same-Sex Households: A Research Note.

The 2020 decennial census provides new insights into the demography of same-sex households and can shed light on ongoing debates in urban and gayborhood studies. Although the U.S. Census gives a vast undercount of the LGBTQ population, it is still the largest source of nationally representative data on same-sex households and is accessible over three time points (2000, 2010, 2020). In this research note, we use 2020 census data to examine the residential patterns of same-sex households down to the neighborhood level. By employing the index of dissimilarity, we present results for the 100 largest U.S. cities and 100 largest metropolitan areas that demonstrate moderate yet persistent segregation. In a continuation of prior trends, male same-sex households remain more segregated from different-sex households than do female same-sex households. We find moderate levels of within-group segregation by gender and marital status-representing new demographic trends. Finally, metropolitan areas have a higher dissimilarity index than cities, revealing greater levels of segregation when factoring in suburban areas. We discuss these trends in light of debates regarding the spatial organization of sexuality in residential contexts and outline future avenues for research utilizing recently released 2020 census data.

Renewal without replication: Expanding Durkheim's theory of disruptions via queer nightlife.

Gay bars are closing in large numbers around the world, but institutional loss provides only a partial narrative for evaluating the larger field of nightlife. Drawing on 112 interviews, we argue that bar closures disrupted the field and consequently encouraged the visibility of alternate nightlife forms, called club nights. Unlike the fixed and emplaced model of bars, club nights are episodic and event-based occasions that are renewing nightlife without replicating the format of the gay bar. By detailing the phenomenology of club nights, we develop a new Durkheimian theory of disruptions that explains how and why some members of a community are motivated to renew rather than replicate existing institutional structures. We bring our framework to organization, sexuality, and nightlife studies-subfields that seldom engage with Durkheim-while subjecting a foundational social theory to an empirical case that can push it forward in important ways.