Intersections of LGBTQ+ social spaces using gender analysis and the social model

Social spaces, whilst complex, have been noted as key to finding community, relationships and identity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) people (Overton, 2014; Formby, 2017; Hepple, 2017). However, these social spaces do not exist in a vacuum and operate within existing normative frames that construct some bodies as deviant by their very existence. This chapter draws on two examples from the respective authors about negotiating social spaces – around and within – using an intersectional framework and engaging with gender analysis and the social model of disability (UPIAS, 1976). Drawing on intersectionality as coined by Crenshaw (1989), we illustrate how multiple layers of identities, experiences and processes, when taken together, demonstrate how groups of people experience and move about in the world, in a complex web of agency, victimhood, fear and resourcefulness. Overton’s research draws out the complexities of negotiating public spaces such as streets surrounding LGBTQ+ social spaces and public routes home in New Orleans for femme-presenting and queer-presenting women, revealing that fear and sense of danger is a constant backdrop, whereas the social venue itself as an LGBTQ+ venue, is seen as safe and welcoming – unproblematic. Hepple’s autoethnographic account draws on his experiences as a gay, disabled man, highlighting that gay social spaces also operate within exclusionary frameworks that can create both fear and danger when seeking pleasure. Combined, this chapter takes two different LGBTQ+ contexts to demonstrate that applying an intersectional lens can reveal the fault lines that exist in spaces that are meant to be ‘inclusive’ but are actually more complex in reality.