Queers in Space: Communities / Public Places / Sites of Resistance

530 Pages·1997·39.067 MB·English

by  Gordon Brent Ingram, Anne-Marie Bouthillette, and Yolanda Retter (eds.)

Advance Prai&e �or Qu
This book is a radical break from past traditions in lesbian and gay studies, which have stressed
the importance of covert places in creating a penumbra that protected marginalized populations.
Instead Queers in Space is an imaginative cartography of the enormous diversity of public and
prívate spaces and places that play an integral part in the daily lives of contemporary queer
communities. The book is both a revelation and testimony to a new maturity in research and
writing on queer experiences.
-MichaeL Dear, Professor, Department of Geography, and Director,
Southern California Studies Center, The University of Southern California
It is so refreshing to see the discourse about space opening itself to questions it has repressed
for so long. This book constitutes yet another important step in the ongoing confrontation with the
politics of space.
-Beatriz Colomina, Professor, School of Architecture,
Princeton University
Exploring the interactions between queer identity, experience, and activism and a range
of communal and public spaces, Queers in Space: Communities, Public Places, Sites of
Resistance opens up a new direction in gay and lesbian studies.
From gay space in Mexico City to the now legendary baths of New York and San
Francisco, Queers in Space travels to bars, parks, beaches, neighborhoods, and cities to
follow the expansion and transformation of queer communities beyond the gay ghetto.
In the process Queers in Space grounds queer theory in the sites and locations of
everyday life to confront homophobia and inequities in access to housing, security, and
safety. Using memoir, historical anecdote, field studies, and images, the contributors
construct maps to represent queer experience and devise strategies for queer activism.
By focusing on the geography of queer social relationships Queers in Space raises critical
and timely questions about the role of social space in shaping identities, the meaning of
communal space for marginalized peoples, and the significance of public spaces for
social visibility.
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Querer&
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Communities Public Places Sites of Resistance
Edited by Gordon Brent lngram, Ph.D., Anne-Marie Bouthillette, M.A.,
and Yolanda Retter, Ph.D.
Content&
vii Acknowledgments
3 Lost In Space: Queer Theory and Community Activism at the Fin-de-Millénaire
Gordon Brent Ingram, Anne-Marie Bouthillette, and Yolanda Retter
17 Queer Space
Jean-U 1 rick Désert
27 Marginality and the Landscapes of Erotic Alien(n)ations
Gordon Brent Ingram
Part t - experience I Place I Map&
55 Narratives of Place: Subjective and Collective
Gordon Brent lngram, Anne-Marie Bouthillette, and Yolanda Retter
61 Restriction and Reclamation: Lesbian Bars and Beaches of the l 950s
Joan Nestle
69 The Interim Photographs
Bill Jacobson
77 People and Their Streets, Places
Sarah Schulman
81 One-Handed Geographies: An Archaeology of Public Sex
David Bell
Part Queer&cape&
2 -
91 Surveying Territories and Landscapes
Gordon Brent lngram, Anne-Marie Bouthillette, and Yolanda Retter
95 "Open" Space as Strategic Queer Sites
Gordon Brent lngram
127 "No More Shit": The Struggle for Democratic Gay Space in Toronto
John Grube
147 From Landmarks to Spaces: Mapping the Territory of a Bisexual Genealogy
Ciare Hemmings
163 Domestic Dykes: The Politics of "In-difference"
Elsie Jay
Part 3 - Regional Dynamic& and Community Fonnation
171 Queer Zones and Enclaves: Political Economies of Community Formation
Gordon Brent Ingram, Anne-Marie Bouthillette, and Yolanda Retter
177 San Francisco: Revisiting "The City of Desire"
Pat Califia
197 Gay Male Places of Mexico City
Alvaro Sanchez-Crispin and Alvaro Lopez-Lopez
213 Queer and Gendered Housing: A Tale of Two Neighbourhoods in Vancouver
Anne-Marie Bouthillette
233 The Queer Nation Acts Up:
Health Care, Politics, and Sexual Diversity in the County of Angels, 1990-92
Ty Geltmaker
275 Constructing Manchester's "New Urban Village":
Gay Space in the Entrepreneurial City
Stephen Quilley
Part Queer Site&
4 -
295 Placemaking and the Dialectics of Public and Private
Gordon Brent Ingram, Anne-Marie Bouthillette, and Yolanda Retter
301 Invisible Women in Invisible Places:
The Production of Social Space in Lesbian Bars
Maxine Wolfe
325 Lesbian Spaces in Los Angeles, 1970-90
Yolanda Retter
339 Leather Nights in the Woods: Locating
Male Homosexuality and Sadomasochism in a Dutch Highway Rest Area
Maurice van Lieshout
357 Queer Spaces in New York City: Places of Struggle/Places of Strength
Betti-Sue Hertz, Ed Eisenberg, and Lisa Maya Knauer of the REPOhistory Collective
Part Queer&cape Architecture&
5 -
373 Making Room: Queerscape Architectures and the Spaces of Activism
Gordon Brent lngram, Anne-Marie Bouthillette, and Yolanda Retter
381 Having Something to Wear: The Landscape of ldentity on Christopher Street
James Polchin
391 The Meaning at the Wall: Tracing the Gay Bathhouse
Ira Tattelman
407 This Is about People Dying:
The Tactics of Early ACT UP and Lesbian Avengers in New York City
An interview with Maxine Wolfe by Laraine Sommella
439 Do You Love the Dyke in Your Face?
Carrie M oyer and Dyke Action Ma chine!
447 Strategies for (Re)constructing Queer Communities
Gordon Brent lngram, Anne-Marie Bouthillette, and Yolanda Retter
459 Notes
497 Bibliography
523 Contributors
Acknowledgment�
The major parts of compiling, editing, and curating the graphics for this book were
funded through The Canada Council Explorations Programme grant #2550-95-0008
"Queersville." I am grateful to the courageous jurors-Phillip Todd, Margaret Dragu,
Christine Welsh, Catherine Lewis, and Pierre Coupey-who recommended support
for this avowedly queer project, and for the careful grant administration by Richard
Holden and Margaret Dryden of The Canada Council.
Earlier phases of the research benefitted from the extensive resources of the
University of British Columbia (UBC), including the Landscape Architecture Pro­
gram, particularly through the studio course "Open Space Planning" in buildings adja­
cent to Wreck Beach. I am grateful for the fine secretarial assistance provided by the
Department of Forest Resources Management and for the support of colleagues on
the Ad Hoc Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues of the Faculty Association. This
book was begun at a time of exceptional hostility to notions of activist queer theory
and public open space, especially as related to human rights law and stewardship of
public lands. I am deeply grateful to the British Columbia Public Interest Advocacy
Centre and the BC Human Rights Coalition for their counsel, especially Chuck
Reasons, David Fathi, Susan O'Donnell, and Peter Beaudin.
In contrast to the chilly climate at UBC, I remain indebted to numerous staff
and faculty at Berkeley, particularly in the Department of Landscape Architecture,
who, while fighting backlash and cutbacks in the University of California system, found
time to support my research. Kris Albert gave a tremendous amount of support and
encouragement, as did numerous people at University of California libraries, particu­
larly Elizabeth Byrne and Kathryn Wayne of the Berkeley College of Environmental
Design library.
Good friends Kathleen Morrissey and Melinda Wong redrew, scanned, and
enhanced many maps and other types of graphics, and Colin James, of Smith Photo in
Vancouver, printed many of the photographs. Their patience and interest were crucial.
vii
Lynne Fernie, the director of the film Forbidden Lave, generously shared her
research on pre-decriminalized queer spaces in Canada. Willie Walker and Gerard
Koskovich of the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California kindly
gave assistance on San Francisco. I am grateful to the following individuals for their
support, ideas, and or information: Kwame Anthony Appiah, Kass Banning, Allan
Bérubé, Thomas Boellstorff, Judith Butler, Bill Coleman, Beatrix Colomina, Samuel
(Chip) Delany, Jeffrey Escofier, Linda Farthing-Kohl, Andrea Fato na, Vera Frankel, Ken
Gardels, Amber Hollibaugh, Michael Immel, Víctor Janoff, Isaac Julien, Moira Kenney,
Larry Knopp, Ruth Maheney of Modern Times Books-San Francisco, the unforget­
table Tedde Matthews (1952-1993) of Modern Times Books, John Bentley Mays, Haris
Metaxa, Henry Myers, Shirin Neshat, Stephen O'Murray, Cindy Patton, Jean Pauline of
Modern Times Books, Daniela Porta, Tom Radulovic, Robert Reid-Pharr, Eric Reyes,
Robert Rothon, Stephen Shapiro, Stephen Shotland, Henry Urbach, Gill Valentine,
Jacqueline Woodson, Cory (Cornelia) Wyngaaden, and Eric Zinner. Important ideas
and information carne from Queers in Space Vancouver, particularly from Anne­
Marie, Kathleen, Michael Howell, Michael Hoeschen, Michael Carroll, and Bart Reid.
Special thanks go to my family, particularly my mother Wilma (Pire-Brochu)
Ingram, my sister Fay Hennekes, my unstoppable daughter Reed Marie Stannard (who
was born and learned to talk as this book was being developed). Benita Dibdin, Anne
Davis, Todd Pittson, Lady Lurex aka Rita Morris, Sarah England, Sally Ogis, Catherine
Laurente, and Franco Studiale gave crucial support.
Thanks to Kim Barnett and Sally Brunsman of Bay Press for their early belief in
the project and their support for its publication, as well as Wallis Bolz, Julie Sullivan,
Lauren Byrne, and Lee Damsky who were crucial in production.
Finally, our greatest thanks go to the many article authors and artists who ali
worked to make Queers in Space a reality.
gbi
Vancouver and San Francisco,
1997
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