The Gay Guides of America

Starting in the 1960's a businessman called Bob Damron started publishing the Damron Address Book travel guides. The book published the names and addresses of all the gay bars Bob Damron knew from his travels across the country.

Now Mapping the Gay Guides has undertaken the task of mapping the queer geographies of all the Damron Address Books. The first stage of Mapping the Gay Guides concentrates on the American South. So far the map shows all the gay locations from the Damron Address Book for 12 southern states.

The interactive map contains the location of each entry in the Damron Address Book from 1965 to 1980. A timeline control allows you to explore these locations by year, while drop-down menus allow you to filter the locations by type and feature. The feature menu includes Bob Damron's notes on an establishment, such as whether the establishment was dangerous, raunchy, elegant and whether it had a more mature or younger clientele.

Mapping the Gay Guides includes an interesting "Vignette's" section which uses the data from the Damron Address Books to explore interesting case studies or stories from recent American gay history. For example the data is used to examine Southern Black Queer Spaces and the Paramount Steak House (a gay venue which has existed since the publication of the first Damron Address Book).

Also See

Europe Gay Guide - maps and guides to gay venues in cities across Europe
Destination Pride - a guide to the safety of holiday destinations around the world for LGBTQ+ travelers
The Pudding's Gayborhoods Guide - uses various sources to determine the gay neighborhoods in U.S. cities

Mapping City Gayborhoods

The Pudding has mapped out gay neighborhoods in 15 different cities. The map plots businesses tagged 'gay bar' and data on where same-sex unmarried partner households and same-sex married joint tax filers live, in order to determine the gay neighborhoods in each city. The Pudding has also mapped out the differences in where same-sex female couples live and where same-sex male couples live.

Men are from Chelsea, Women are from Park Slope includes three maps for each of 15 of the USA's largest cities. For each city one of the maps provides a choropleth view of where same-sex couples are more likely to live. The other two maps shows where same-sex female couples are more likely to live and where same-sex male couples live.

The Pudding has also provided a descriptive overview of the gayborhoods in each of the 15 cities. This includes information on such things as where Pride parades have been routed and where gay bars have tended to be sited. It also includes the first hand accounts of local residents about local gay friendly and gay unfriendly neighborhoods in the featured cities.


Another way to determine a city's gay friendly neighborhoods might be to see where people go after Pride. Last year Carto undertook an interesting geo-data investigation into where people go after taking part in New York's Pride parade. A Map of Where People Went After the NYC Pride Parade uses pick-up and drop-off data from New York's yellow taxis to determine what people did after New York's 2018 Pride parade.

Using data from Sunday June 26th, 2016 (the date of last year's Pride in New York) Carto isolated all the taxi pick-ups in the Pride parade area between 4-8pm (when the parade was winding down). They then created a map of all the drop-off points from these pick-ups, to see where people were going after Pride. Carto used a DBSCAN clustering algorithm to identify locations with a high density of drop-offs.

Major transit hubs feature quite prominently, presumably for people heading home, Areas with popular gay bars also appeared to be popular destinations. Locations around hotels is another take out from the mapped data.

Mapping LGBTQ+ Memories

Queering the Map is back. Queering the Map is an interactive map which documents queer moments at locations around the world. It allows anyone to drop a pin on a map to leave a memory of a personal queer moment.

Unfortunately Queering the Map was forced offline after a number of Trump supporters defaced the map. But now it is back. And it is more popular than ever. In fact the map is so popular that it will soon need to think about a marker clustering system to manage the huge number of queer memories added to the map.


If you want to know how LGBTQ+ friendly different locations around the world are then you should also have a look at Destination Pride. Destination Pride provides a guide to the possible safety of holiday destinations around the world for LGBTQ+ travelers. Using information on relevant local laws and social attitudes Destination Pride hopes to give a basic safety overview for people traveling to new destinations.

Type a destination into Destination Pride and you can view the location's LGBTQ+ safety ranting on an interactive map. The map sidebar includes a rainbow flag which breaks down the safety ratings for the location into different categories. Each colored bar on the flag represents a different category, including marriage equality, sexual activity laws, anti-discrimination laws and civil rights & liberties (you can click on the individual colors to reveal what they represent).

The LGBTQ+ Traveler

Destination Pride provides a guide to the possible safety of holiday destinations around the world for LGBTQ+ travelers. Using information on relevant local laws and social attitudes Destination Pride hopes to give a basic safety overview for people traveling to new destinations.

Type a destination into Destination Pride and you can view the location's LGBTQ+ safety ranting on an interactive map. The map sidebar includes a rainbow flag which breaks down the safety ratings for the location into different categories. Each colored bar on the flag represents a different category, including marriage equality, sexual activity laws, anti-discrimination laws and civil rights & liberties (you can click on the individual colors to reveal what they represent).

Destination Pride was created by PFLAG Canada, an organization offering peer-to-peer support for individuals with issues of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

Pride Comes Before a Ball

Carto has completed an interesting geo-data investigation into where people go after taking part in New York's Pride parade. A Map of Where People Went After the NYC Pride Parade uses pick-up and drop-off data from New York's yellow taxis to determine what people do after Pride.

Using data from Sunday June 26th, 2016 (the data of last year's Pride in New York) Carto isolated all the taxi pick-ups in the Pride parade area between 4-8pm (when the parade was winding down). They then created a map of all the drop-off points from these pick-ups, to see where people were going after Pride. Carto used a DBSCAN clustering algorithm to identify locations with a high density of drop-offs.

Major transit hubs feature quite prominently, presumably for people heading home, Areas with popular gay bars also appeared to be popular destinations. Locations around hotels is another take out from the mapped data.

If you enjoyed this visualization of NYC taxi data then you will probably also like NYC Taxis: A Day in the Life. Chris Whong's NYC Taxis: A Day in the Life is a must for anyone interested in the visualization of transit data.

Your Town's Pride Route Map

Google has released a Pride search engine which can help you find the nearest upcoming Pride events happening near you. #ShowUp not only lists the dates of your nearest Pride events it can also show you a map of each march's route.

If you enter your location then #ShowUp will show you the nearest upcoming Pride events and the dates that they are happening. If you select an event you can even view the event's route on a Google Map. The route is of course displayed with an appropriately rainbow colored line.

If you missed your city's Pride event this year then you might be able to review the event from the #ShowUp home page. The home page features a number of 'Stories of Pride in America'. This allows you to select a Pride march that has already taken place. You can then view a Google Map of the Pride march which features videos and stories from people who took part in this year's event.

The Gay Guide to Europe

German website Patroc has created Google Maps for all the major European cities to show the location of gay bars, clubs and events.

Patroc list upcoming gay parties and events for each city. The details for each event include a Google Map of its location. Each city also has its own Gay Map. The individual city Gay Maps display the location of a gay pubs and clubs on Google Maps and list all the venues beneath the map.

Patroc Gay Guide Europa 2011

Also See

• GayBarMaps - find gay bars in the U.S.
• ClubFly - Gay bar and club finder for the U.S.
• GayScout - the international gay travel guide
  

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