Gay Neighborhoods and the Self-Enfranchisement of Queer Youth

• In Event: 166 - Section on Community and Urban Sociology Paper Session. Sexualities and Place

Abstract

Drawing on a combination of qualitative methods using data collected primarily from Chicago’s Boystown neighborhood, this paper examines how black and Latino queer youth draw on their presence in public areas and around key institutional anchors to demand recognition as legitimate community stakeholders, with rights to participate in the affairs of the local community. I refer to as vicarious citizenship – the exercise of rights and entitlements by non-residential stakeholders who personally identify politically, economically, or socio-culturally with a neighborhood or locality. Many black and Latino queer youth have sought asylum in iconic gay neighborhoods like Chicago’s Boystown in recent years, often enduring racial profiling and potential violence in gay neighborhoods to escape the homophobia and violence many have encountered in their own residential communities. Because many are too young and/or lack the economic resources to participate in the commercial life of gay neighborhoods, these youths adapt familiar socio-spatial practices from their own local communities (e.g. congregating around street corners near gay bars and other institutional anchors) to build community and defend their visions of community from local residents, many of whom are gay white men who find their presence a threat to neighborhood safety. While local residents attribute the participation of LGBT youth to the decline of gay neighborhoods, I show how the participation of black and Latino LGBT Youth ultimately reinforces the importance of gay neighborhoods as safe spaces where gender and sexual identities are affirmed and supported.

Author

• Theo Greene, Northwestern University