Queering Harm Reduction Frameworks: The Implications of Queer Social Spaces

• In Event: Contesting Queer Spaces

Abstract

Harm reduction strategies often applied within substance use contexts are often centered on addressing underlying issues that encourage use, education around safe use practices, managing use overall, encouraging abstinence, and meeting people where they are. Exploring how substance use harm reduction strategies occur within queer communities, a small but growing body of research has described the unique ways in which queer people who use drugs draw from and “queer” existing harm reduction frameworks. Recognizing the historical importance of queer substance use, particularly within queer social spaces, in bringing queer communities “into being” (Race, 2009: 43), queer criminologists have highlighted cisnormative and heteronormative barriers that limit queer communities access to harm reduction programs or opportunities. Integrating a queer criminological approach with a pragmatic philosophical framework, we examine the intersection of queer social spaces and harm reduction to consider the implications of applying existing substance use-related harm reduction frameworks to queer substance use. Specifically, we argue that queer social spaces, and the interactions within them, often function as a site of harm reduction.

Authors

• Alessandra Early, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

• Roger Schaefer, Central Washington University