Queering neighbourhoods: Politics and practice in Toronto

Abstract

Changing political, social and economic circumstances operating across a variety of scales are transforming the socio-spatial landscapes for Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ) people in Toronto. While the established gay village continues to be the imagined and material centre of political and social life for the LGBTQ community, various groups are increasingly utilizing other locations in the downtown core but outside the Village, particularly an area know colloquially as ‘Queer West.’ This paper argues that for some queer women/gender queers individuals, the Village is not viewed as a desirable location for social or political organising given perceptions the area is dominated by largely white, middle class, gay men. Further, the possibilities, potentials and limitations for queer women/genderqueer individuals to take up alternative locations are constituted through complex social relations and include notions of what ‘queered’ and ‘queering’ space entails and participants’ own imagined sense of place and reflecting aspects of their own classed, racialized and gendered positioning