The place of transversal LGBTQ+ urban activisms

Abstract

This special issue on placing LGBTQ+ urban activisms seeks to affirm the plurality of LGBTQ+ activisms and expand the geographic lens to consider places that have been side-lined as sites of LGBTQ+ political ferment. In this article I reflect on the ways that the collection also gestures towards the importance of ‘connective’ LGBTQ+ urban activisms, complicating existing theorisation that has primarily focused on transnational relations. Approaching it through the particular space and time of London during the Covid-19 pandemic, I interpret the collection as a call to explore the knowledge that becomes available – and the praxis that is foregrounded – when we examine the connective dimensions of LGBTQ+ urban activisms. Bridging feminist, queer and urban studies, I conclude by arguing for the particular analytic lens that emerges when ‘place’ is brought into critical tension with ‘transversal politics’ as a way to think about both those connective LGBTQ+ urban activisms that already exist and those which are urgently needed.

Placing LGBTQ+ urban activisms

“…Their reflections on this special issue help to foster an ongoing dialogue between urban studies and LGBTQ+ activisms. Spruce (2021) invites us to more robustly consider connections and transversal relations both within cities and between them. Meanwhile, Ghaziani (2021) concludes the special issue by accentuating the scalar, spatial and methodological shifts necessary to advance urban scholarship on the emplacement of LGBTQ+ urban activisms.…”

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

“…Beebeejaun (2017) suggests that inclusive possibilities outside of formal state spaces can reduce disparities in representation in leadership and political roles. Given the strength of the U.S. LGBTQ + community's history with collective action (Alexander 2005;Bell and Valentine 1995;Chauncey 1994;Cohen 1997;Cvetkovich 2003;D'Emilio 1992D'Emilio , 2002D'Emilio , 2012D'Emilio & Freedman 1997;Enke 2007;Faderman 1991;Faderman and Timmons 2006;Hanhardt 2013;Katz 1992;Kenney 2001;Kennedy and Davis 1993;McKinney 2020;Meyerowitz 2002;Muñoz 2009;Quinn 2019;Spruce 2021;Stryker 2017;Snorton 2017;Warner 2002) and service provision (Knopp and Brown 2021;Schulman 2012), service development for the unique needs of older LGBTQ + adults in the U.S. could build on the strengths already in this community. Outside of the U.S., communities have been developing their own LGBTQ + politic to fit their cultural grammar in places such as China (Rofel 2007), Lebanon (Moussawi 2015) and South Africa (Tucker, 2009).…”