It's official. A writer for Obit Magazine has delcared the death of the gayborhood. Portland isn't the only city where "Vaseline Alley" has dissolved as LGBT has gone mainstream. Reporter Matt Katz writes of the dissolution of gayborhoods in San Francisco, Philly and DC:

These rainbows should be flying at half mast.
  • These rainbows should be flying at half mast.

As the gayborhood became broadly popular, gays migrated elsewhere. In D.C., my gay BFFs Aaron and Rick live in a hot neighborhood, U Street, which is unrecognizable from the place I remembered when picking up hypodermic needles for college community service in the ’90s. It doesn’t look or feel at all like the Fruit Loop, either, yet Aaron and Rick live in a new condo building where 90 percent (Rick’s estimate) of the residents are gay.

In a digital world, physical entities are less critical to community identity. So with more straights in Dupont and more gay people outside Dupont, maybe the gayborhood has grown passe. Why go to the gay bar in the gayborhood every night when you can hold hands at any old corner pub without risking your life

Gawker has a response to the declaration of gayborhood death: a contract between the gay community and our straight neighbors. Rule #1: You're Welcome to Move in, But the Hood Is Gay Forever.