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The City as a Single Gay Male Magnet? Gay and Lesbian Geographical Concentration in Sweden
Author(s) -
Wimark Thomas,
Östh John
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
population, space and place
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.398
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1544-8452
pISSN - 1544-8444
DOI - 10.1002/psp.1825
Subject(s) - lesbian , gender studies , male homosexuality , sociology , psychology , medicine , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , virology , men who have sex with men , syphilis
During the last two decades, an increasing number of studies on the geographies of gay and lesbian couples have been carried out, stressing the urban significance, tolerance, and amenities. In this study, it is argued that former studies have only mapped a fraction of the gay and lesbian population, that is, the couples, and present a new method for retrieving information from the Internet to map gay and lesbian singles and couples. The findings indicate that there is a significant difference between gay and lesbian singles and couples and that the urban significance is much stronger for singles than for couples. In the conclusion, it is suggested that a life course perspective could explain this where gay and lesbian singles tend to concentrate in cities, but when they have found a partner and decide to move together, the city is less important. Finally, a recommendation reconsidering partnership data is made as it can be problematical to generalise such data for a gay and lesbian population. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.