Placing LGBTQ+ urban activisms

Abstract

This article introduces the special issue on placing LGBTQ+ urban activisms. It argues that place provides a vital framework for considering a more decentred and transversal representation of such activisms, creating potential for the consideration of smaller and more peripheral locations and alternative visions of the more familiar and iconic cities that have been centres of LGBTQ+ urban social movements in the global North. While inspired by the anti-colonial, subaltern and feminist ethos of what Derickson terms ‘Urbanisation 2’, the article makes the case for adopting a middle ground – Urbanisation 1.5 – based in material realities that shape both the practice and inquiry into contemporary LGBTQ+ urban activisms. It begins by reviewing and dismantling established histories and theories of LGBTQ+ urban activisms, queerly calling into question the employment of urban theories that emphasise spatial hierarchies and linear temporality. Next, the article proposes alternatives, suggesting a shift towards recognising the contingencies and multiplicities that come together in and across urban places. The third section emphasises the critical continuities and ordinary entanglements involved in remembering, being and doing urban LGBTQ+ activisms in place. It concludes by encouraging the employment of elsewhere and otherwise as a critical urban strategy for igniting further inquiry into the politics of LGBTQ+ activisms in urban studies.

Impact of Covid‐19 pandemic on the transnationalization of LGBT* activism in Japan and beyond

“…Beyond debates on changing boundaries or the merging of online and offline spaces and networks (e.g. Blommaert, 2015 ), or specifically LGBT* urban spaces (Bain & Podmore, 2021 ), there is a need to further look into the general transnational social practices that have been enabled or at least accelerated through Covid‐19‐induced digitalization (cf. also the call for the geographical perspective in Nagel & Staehli, 2010 ).…”

Pinkwashing Policies or Insider Activism? Allyship in the LGBTIQ+ Governance–Activism Nexus

“…To complement this analysis, more research has to be done with the activist side of the nexus to raise up the community collectives' voices and acknowledge their diversity (Bain & Podmore, 2021). Based on initial insights from the Geneva case, some community members advocate for a plurality of modes of action to enhance dialogue with politicians, while carrying out more radical actions in parallel.…”

Aging Back Into the Closet: Community Planning for Older LGBTQ + Adults

“…financial, emotional, physical). As the LGBTQ + community continues to disperse outside of traditional gayborhoods (Anacker 2011;Bain and Podmore 2021;Forsyth 1997;Ghaziani 2019;Gieseking 2013;Podmore 2006), older LGBTQ + adults could be facing added challenges in finding social networks that foster a sense of belonging.…”