The emergence of LGBTQ-oriented neighborhoods in North American and European cities has without doubt played a role in changes around the perception of LGBTQ people in society. From strolling around the mostly hidden and clandestine venues of the early 20th century to walking down the city-sponsored heritage and beautification projects of the last three decades, the coded use of the street by queer people has been an essential part of their experience of the city and more broadly of how they navigate society, bringing to the public realm lives that many people deemed should stay private. Beginning with the pioneering work of Manuel Castells’ The City and the Grassroots (1983) on San Francisco’s Castro and the 1990s exploration by geographers based in the United Kingdom such as David Bell and Gill Valentine, sociologists and geographers have theorized the human experience of urban LGBTQ-oriented neighborhoods and the reclamation of existing places by queer people. This chapter explores how public understandings of the queer communities are shaped by the buildings and monuments that frame queer streetscapes, underlining how the spaces exhibit a complex interrelation between public and private. Using examples from San Franscisco and Montreal, the chapter begins with an exploration of how personal and communal identifications are often layered onto physical buildings and streets, then moves to a discussion of the transformation and reclamation of existing landscapes, before ending with questions about the tensions surrounding the memorialization of queer public sexualities and non-normative lives.