Imagine a utopia. Queer paradise. A place where you are constantly surrounded by pleasant, like-minded people that all get along. A place where you never have to worry about discrimination or prejudice. Life is just easy-going without any unnecessary negative experiences. Theoretically that’s what a gayborhood, or a neighborhood with a large number of LGBTQ+ residents, is supposed to be. And while there are plenty of benefits to living in a place filled with people like you, there also comes some strong negative impacts.
Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras’ 2003 documentary Flag Wars follows the conflict in a Columbus, Ohio neighborhood between the gay and African American communities as gay white homebuyers begin moving in and gentrifying the neighborhood. Filmed in Columbus’s Olde Towne East neighborhood over a period of four years, it looks at the casual way in which the displacement of the African American community occurs.
To give some historical context, Olde Towne East was once the crown jewel of Columbus. Back in the last half of the 19th century, the city’s most intelligent, creative, wealthy and powerful citizens all resided in this neighborhood. The so-called “white flight” began with the introduction of the freeway system in the 1950s, more suburbs, and desegregation. By the 1970s, the neighborhood had become a predominately African American community. The once grand and opulent mansions were either gutted of their expensive amenities (such as copper plumbing and porcelain sinks and bathtubs) or partitioned and converted into apartments and nursing homes.
LGBTQ folk began moving into the area in the 1990s—attracted by and renovating its relatively inexpensive Victorian homes—increasing property values and displacing the neighborhood’s working-class families, many of them African American. By the mid 90s people had stopped dying of AIDS thanks to major advancements in antiretroviral treatments. The AIDS epidemic had a devastating effect on the gay community. This period marks a moment in gay history when LGBTQ folk could once again allow themselves to look to the future with hope, a joyful new dawn after a decade of death and shame.
While shared experiences of oppression could have laid a foundation for solidarity between the two groups, that possibility wasn't realized. Instead, many of the new residents called on police to crack down on the slightest violations of city code committed by black residents. Throughout the film, newcomers use civil law to speed up the process of removing the African American community. This includes having parts of the neighborhood declared historic to create restricted housing codes, fighting the presence of low-income housing, and making code enforcement complaints. One such newly introduced regulation stipulates that longtime resident, Jim, must remove an African-style sign from above his front door while his newer neighbors are permitted to fly rainbow flags from their properties, hence the film’s title.
Extreme nonchalance best describes the prevailing attitude of the white newcomers towards the black community, which at times is hard to watch. At one point in the documentary, while attending a neighborhood meeting a member of the queer community states, “If you don’t want to renovate it, then don’t live in it.” Jim explains that most of these people do not have the money to allocate funds to the upkeep of their homes.
As the new residents restore the beautiful but run-down homes, black homeowners fight to hold onto their community and heritage. The inevitable clashes expose prejudice and self-interest on both sides, as well as the common dream to have a home to call your own. Winner of the Jury Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival, Flag Wars is a candid, unvarnished portrait of privilege, poverty and local politics taking place across America. While twenty years have passed since the film was originally shot, it could not be more relevant today.