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Anthony Borrelli

April 8, 2018

Ms. Boletsis

English

How Can Sexuality Influence Lives In An Urban Environment?

“Predominant cultural narratives geographically situate sexual minorities in urban gay

communities, dictate the contours of how to be a modern gay person, and urge sexual minorities

to come out and assimilate into gay communities and culture.” This quote is from a UCLA

review by Luke A. Boso. This quote perfectly explains some of the struggles that influence gay

people who reside in an urban environment. This quote also brings up the question, How can

your sexuality influence your life in a urban community?.

Truly sexuality can influence your life in a urban setting. One quote that shows this can

be found in a UCLA review by Luke A. Boso. He goes on to state in this review that,

“Contemporary activists reproduce urban gay narratives by assuring youth that “It Gets Better,” a

promise premised on the belief that coming out, being openly gay, and assimilating into a

lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community are the key ingredients for happy lives. Often,

the message is clear: Come to the city where you can be who you truly are, and create for

yourself a “life worth living.” This quote shows that sexuality can influence your life in a urban

setting because the author is basically stating that generally in an urban environment people are

more accepting and it may be a better place to build a better life for yourself as compared to

somewhere less urbanized. Another quote proving this point can be found in an article written by
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Warren Throckmorton. In this article he goes onto state, “Regarding homosexual marriages, the

researchers found that birthplace relates to the sexual orientation of marriage partner. Being born

in urban settings increased the probability of homosexual marriage and decreased the probability

of heterosexual marriage.” This quote shows that being born or raised in an urban setting can

increase the probability of homosexual marriage. I believe that this is the case because generally

cities are more open or accepting of different types of people so it is somewhat more encouraged

than it would be in rural or other types of settings.

However on the other hand, some people would disagree with the idea that sexuality can

be influenced by living in a urban community. In another article written by Paul A. Burns and

Rachel C. Snow they go on to state, “Youth sexual risk behavior is often described in social

terms, and there has been limited attention to date on how measures of the built environment,

including access to municipal services, impact sexual risk behavior, particularly in resource-

limited countries.” This quote shows that the authors believe that there is not enough data to

really tell if there is a correlation between living or being raised in an urban setting and sexuality.

This point is wrong though because since cities are way more diverse there is a bigger chance of

people being comfortable with coming out and living happier lives without being judged as much

as they would in other types of settings.

In conclusion, many factors including the environment you are raised or born in can

affect who you grow up to be and also your sexuality. When compared to rural or less developed

areas, urban settings are more likely to host a wide range of sexualities and beliefs and people are

more likely to express them.

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Work Cited

Luke A. Boso. “Urban Bias, Rural Sexual Minorities, and the Courts”. Pages 1-3. UCLA

Warren Throckmorton. “Environmental factors may influence sexual orientation”. LifeSiteNews

Paul A. Burns & Rachel C. Snow. “The built environment & the impact of neighborhood

characteristics on youth sexual risk behavior in Cape Town, South Africa”. Pages 1-4.

Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov