Carving Out Queer Space: In/visibility, Belonging and Resistance

Abstract

There has been a growing interest within sexualities studies in the construction of queer space, understood a space collectively appropriated by non-heterosexuals as an alternative to heteronormative urban space (Oswin, 2008). Existing research generally focuses on metropolitan, ter-ritorialised forms of queer space, such as the gay ‘scene’ (understood as a territorially concentrated cluster of commercial venues and community organisations), or on inner city neighbourhoods known to have a high concentration of LGBT residents (Binnie and Skeggs, 2004; Moran and Skeggs, 2004; Valentine and Skelton, 2003). As Binnie (2004, p. 4) notes, however, this literature locates queer space in the metropolitan west and ‘within major urban centres of gay consumer culture’, thus neglecting both the existence of spaces precariously and less overtly claimed as queer, and the experiences of queers who live in locales which lack institutionalised and visible gay scenes.