Geographies

Geographic concepts are significant in the development of queer identities, communities, and politics. Queer people and communities are equally important for shaping geographic imaginings of particular spaces and places, such as being welcoming or progressive towards queer equalities. This entry explores the concept of ‘queer geographies’ as the recursive production of queer places and spaces with queer identities, communities, and politics. It first outlines the development of thought within human geography in relation to the social production of space. It then discusses how a relational understanding of space explains the embedding of hetero/homo-normativities into spaces to govern queer sexual and gendered lives, before exploring how theorizing the social production of queer geographical settings can resist spatialized norms. As many queer activisms focus on access to and acceptance within spaces and places, a queer geographic approach to deconstructing queer spatialities might be further engaged within queer studies to imagine and create better spaces for queer people.