“Wow, we have ‘gay-bors’”[1]: Queer Movement in Philadelphia’s Southern New Jersey Suburbs
This semester, my research will focus on the movement of LGBTQ+ couples in suburbs around southern New Jersey outside of Philadelphia, especially famously gay-friendly one’s like Collingswood. Last week, I formulated my research question as “why did LGBTQ+ couples, namely gay and lesbian ones, begin moving to southern New Jersey suburbs in the late 1990s and early 2000s?” There are some answers to this question already littered in the archive.
Sharon Chung reported for the Gloucester County Times on May 8th of 2000 that the “domestic partners Jim O’Brien and Phil Sargent” bought “a home of their own,” after “they discovered” that “there were many other Collingswood residents who” were “like them – openly gay and proud of it.”[2] Chung explained that the many other gay residents, and Collingswood’s “leafy parks, holiday parades, arts and crafts and live concerts … sealed the deal between the couple and their real estate agent.”[3] According to Chung, people were enticed by Collingswood’s “varied housing – Victorian to stone and brick homes starting at $100,000 – its easy access to Philadelphia, its historical and neighborhood preservation and its walkable downtown.”[4]
What I also want to know this semester is, when did gay couples start moving to Collingswood, and what can we make of the movement of gay couples in and around Philadelphia’s southern New Jersey suburbs. Chung suggested in 2000 that Collingswood “is not alone: Across America, suburbia is becoming more inviting to gays.”[5] However, with the continuing rise of anti-trans discourse and policies, as well as the increasing uncertainty about the legal status of same-sex marriage in the United States, I have been left with many questions. What can we make of this sentiment from the early 2000s? How can we learn from the movement of gay couples to southern New Jersey suburbs in the early 2000s? What can this tell us about the future of suburban and LGBTQ+ lives? And, have the experiences of gay men in suburban towns like Collingswood been the same as their trans, lesbian, and bisexual counterparts? How has the movement of LGBTQ+ people to the suburbs been impacted by other factors such as race, gender, and class?
I plan to answer the public coverage of these questions mainly through newspaper sources from the region like the Gloucester County Times, the NJ Patch, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Camden Courier-Post mostly accessed through newspapers.com. I also plan to make use of Temple University’s ProQuest databases, the Camden County Archive, the New Jersey State Archives, the Philadelphia City Archives, and the Temple Special Collections Research Center to complete this study of LGBTQ+ life in Collingswood.[6]
To this end, I argue that gay couples began moving to Collingswood in the early 2000s because other gay people were already living there. Gay couples also moved to Collingswood in the early 2000s because of the relative affordability of the housing as they left cities and other towns in the region. Finally, the accessibility of the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO) Speedline transit service into Philadelphia’s Center City and Gayborhood encouraged the movement of gay men to Collingswood in the early 2000s and cemented the connection between the two places.
[1] “Town’s appeal to gays is growing” Newspapers.com. Gloucester County Times, May 8, 2000. https://www.newspapers.com/article/gloucester-county-times-towns-appeal-to/185705583/.
[2] “Town’s appeal to gays is growing” Newspapers.com. Gloucester County Times, May 8, 2000. https://www.newspapers.com/article/gloucester-county-times-towns-appeal-to/185705583/.
[3] “Town’s appeal to gays is growing” Newspapers.com. Gloucester County Times, May 8, 2000. https://www.newspapers.com/article/gloucester-county-times-towns-appeal-to/185705583/.
[4] “Town’s appeal to gays is growing” Newspapers.com. Gloucester County Times, May 8, 2000. https://www.newspapers.com/article/gloucester-county-times-towns-appeal-to/185705583/.
[5] “Town’s appeal to gays is growing” Newspapers.com. Gloucester County Times, May 8, 2000. https://www.newspapers.com/article/gloucester-county-times-towns-appeal-to/185705583/.
[6] I am also open to oral histories.