Instead, growing numbers of developers are turning their attention to another kind of project entirely: retirement communities for aging gays and lesbians.

Ten years after a Manhattan retiree, Bill Laing, broke ground on 'The Palms of Manasota', a collection of modest homes near Sarasota in Florida and marketed it as America's First Gay & Lesbian Retirement Community, similar projects are sprouting across the country.

Most recently, the city of Santa Fe in New Mexico witnessed a formal ribbon-cutting at the more upscale RainbowVision. On 13 acres, it boasts 146 apartments, for sale and rent, as well as a social centre with a shared cafeteria, a Billie Jean King health club and spa, and a cabaret space.

The community also offers assisted-living units for residents no longer able to live independently.

RainbowVision is already sold out and its developers plan a second, similarly-sized community in Palm Springs, California.

The message is that samesex couples can step from their front doors holding hands without embarrassment and single homosexuals will find themselves in an environment where they can come out and not feel they are in a minority. Some will be emerging from the closet for the first time.

David Aaronstein, in charge of marketing for Stonewall Communities in Boston, where apartments will be sold for as much as $600,000, recalls one potential buyer saying to him: "It doesn't have to be exclusively gay and lesbian. I just want to be in the majority for once in my life".

There are an estimated three million gays and lesbians over the age of 55 in the US. Many find themselves with none of the usual family support networks that heterosexual people rely upon as they get older.