This book examines how gay place-making challenged the juggernaut of neoliberal urbanization in the Malate district of Manila. In this ethnography, Collins explores the creation of place, characterized by neighborhood renewal, gay community and entrepreneurialism, and informal gay sexual labor. Malate teaches us that the power of sexual community to sustain a transgressive, inclusive, gay neighborhood is circumscribed and fleeting, and that urban livability, justice, and freedom must be pursued through organized grassroots political projects if the magic of Malate is to be revived for all its residents.

1. Why Place Matters: An Introduction.- 2. The History of Place: From Urban Community to Heritage Conservation.- 3. The Magic of Place: Players in the Nakpil Revival.- 4. The Sexuality of Place: Gay Hospitality and the Production of Desiring Labor.- 5 Love, Autonomy, and Our Attempts at It: Coming of Age in Malate.- 6. The Exclusions of Place: Gay-led Gentrification within Nakpil's Second Wave.- 7. Conclusion: Malate 2013.