Hispanic neighborhoods are traditional in their sexual attitudes, with Catholic beliefs being an important guide. Homosexuality is discouraged. The market in the Mexican neighborhood is highly organized by family, the church and neighborhood social networks.
The North Side gay neighborhood has its own set of rules as well. There, the transactional market is very important for gay men but not important for lesbians, who favor the relational market. The community also discourages African-Americans from participating in its activities by such measures as triple carding African-American bar patrons. Lesbians also find it difficult to find places to gather in the neighborhood because of male dominance, researchers found.
In the gay community, the failure of institutions to deal with sexuality plays out in a variety of ways. Churches in the neighborhood provide an ambivalent resource by being open to gay people on the one hand, but also respectful of denominational perspectives that might not be open to gay marriage, for instance. The community also has no refuges for gay men and women who have suffered domestic violence.
Among heterosexuals, institutional response to sexuality is also problematic. Police largely limit their interventions to potentially criminal issues, churches often ignore the issue of sexuality, and health care agencies treat sexuality as a medical problem and avoid a more holistic approach, Laumann and his team contend.
But the need for an institutional response is growing because of changes in
'"/>
Contact: William Harm
w-harms@uchicago.edu
773-702-8356
University of Chicago
8-Jan-2004