A gay village, or gayborhood is an urban geographic location with generally recognized boundaries where a large number of lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual people live. They often contain a number of gay-oriented establishments, such as gay bars or pubs, nightclubs, bathhouses, restaurants, bookstores, and other businesses.

Such areas may represent a gay-friendly oasis in an otherwise hostile city, or may simply have a high concentration of gay residents and/or businesses. As with many urban 'groups', gay and lesbian spaces or villages are a manifestation both of their necessity for a tolerant space as well as choice. Much as other urbanized groups, some gay men and women have managed to utilize their spaces as a way to reflect gay cultural value and serve the special needs of individuals in relation to society at large. In cities that have the necessary critical mass to support such a community, the gay "ghetto" provides a normalization of space that is essential to the culture’s ability to be supported and practiced in a safe environment.

The traditional stereotypes of ghettos as dangerous and oppressive places rarely, if ever, apply to the gay "ghetto". Typically these neighborhoods are found in the upscale or trendy parts of town, chosen for aesthetic or historic value rather than resulting from the corraling of citizens bound together by mutual socioeconomic hardship. Today's manifestation of gay ghettos hardly resembles those of the 1970s.