And, as many are childless, he said, they have the financial resources to restore more derelict properties. Gay real estate agent Eldredge Langlinais, a former Houston resident who also owns the Pink Dolphin Bar and heads the gay Krewe of Banner Mardi Gras group, said many gays are attracted by the city's large stock of older homes. And real estate agentĬonfirmed that sales to gays and lesbians have speeded up in the past two or three years.īowers, who currently works as a real estate agent, placed the city's gay population at 10 percent. , owner of the gay-oriented Lost Bayou Guesthouse, noted that at least four other homes within two blocks of his bed and breakfast are owned by gays. During the last 10 years, there's been a big increase in gay-owned property." Real estate sales up Phil DeMarco "People have recognized that it's not - oh my God! - the gays have come to ruin the world. "As time has gone by, as history has played out, there's been much less stigma," said Trey Click, editor and publisher of The Parrot, an island entertainment monthly. Watt tweets the two things he doesn't miss about Houston (and one thing he does)
![gay bar in galveston hiring gay bar in galveston hiring](http://www.houstonlgbthistory.org/Houston80s/Misc/Galveston/79-bamboo%20hut.jpg)
![gay bar in galveston hiring gay bar in galveston hiring](https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/600x600/15686075_8OJYpnNCihhmjYJ3sYbvzjMPZbU8clkdv0yKelP2vUw.jpg)
Lawyer-real estate agent David Bowers experienced such apparent tolerance first-hand when, during his bid for a third term on City Council in 1998, he was denounced in a newspaper advertisement as a homosexual. Elsewhere in the Houston area, no more than 33 percent agreed, and in Montgomery and Fort Bend counties, the total dropped to about 25 percent. Forty-five percent of island participants believed such marriages should be given legal status. Now, Villagran's visitor's center, which functions as a travel agency and clearing house for tips on entertainment, real estate, health services and gay-friendly businesses, occupies a prominent spot near the heart of the city's tourist district.Ī recent Houston-area survey by Rice University sociology professor and pollster Stephen Klineberg found Galveston residents the region's most liberal on the key issue of gay marriage. This year, roughly 8,000 revelers turned out for the summer Splash Day celebration on East Beach and, in October, throngs jammed the Strand for the city's first gay pride festival. Last year, Harbor Metropolitan Community Church, catering to gay worshippers, opened on 39th Street.