In the 21st century, Canada is in the forefront of LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights in the world. Struggles over the last twenty years centred on equality rights such as same sex marriage and homosexual practices have instilled new understandings of policy change and drive for improvements in social institutions of legal recognition and protection of LGBT citizens. In Toronto specifically, LGBT zones have become increasingly visible and popular with the success of civil right movements advocating equality, prohibition of discrimination, and rights to operating LGBT commercial spaces. This trend resulted in several changes within the city giving rise to a booming market in regard to tourism and new ideas of recognizing LGBT …show more content…
Events such as Pride Week and commercialization of gay/lesbian bars, baths, and nude beaches have flourished and expanded as a result of ostensibly support from the government and police officials claiming to promoting the city as cosmopolitan and multicultural place within the globalized world. In spite of the city promoting itself as a major global centre of LGBT community life, governance of spaces and urban politics have revealed alternative desideratum of the government in seeking to neutralize individual transgressiveness of queer identities by assimilating them into the hegemonic state, promoting a peaceful, white-collar, well-behaved gay/lesbian community (Bain, 2007: 17). Stemming from bathhouse raids to security of LGBT events in self-policing and commercializing of specify zones, shifts to neoliberalism give rise to a new relationship between LGBT communities, non-LGBT individuals, the market, and the state. In this paper, I argue …show more content…
The Bijou, a gay men’s pro theatre, The Barn, a gay men’s club, and several other bathhouses were all raided preceding the raid on the “Pussy Palace” bathhouse (Bain, 2007: 24). These establishments are all similar in which they provide asylums for various LGBT communities across the city but also challenges hegemonic notions of traditional gendered practices and identities. When put on to the spotlight, I argue, that these business were perceived by the city and police as “dark areas” of city, promoting sexual deviance and illegal practices. These societies were certainly not areas where family tourists could bring their kids in comparison to the centre of Pride Week such as Church and Wellesley village in downtown Toronto. In contrast to day-time clothing shops, museums, and parks where one could see brightly coloured rainbow flags and cheerful homosexual couples holding hands walking down the street of Church and Wellesley, bathhouse events, specifically the “Pussy Palace” is held during the night, in shady, downtown, entertainment sectors of downtown Toronto, promoting perverse, kinky, and devious activity such as sexual practices in closed doors. Rather then attracting tourists and citizens of Toronto, I argue, that perceptions of
In Vicki L. Eaklor’s Queer America, the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the years since the 1970s gay liberation movement are described as a time of transformation and growth. The antigay movement, threatened, now more than ever, created numerous challenges and obstacles that are still prevalent today. Many of the important changes made associated with the movement were introduced through queer and queer allied individuals and groups involved in politics. Small victories such as the revision of the anti discrimination statement to include “sexual orientation”, new propositions regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and legalized abortion, were met in turn with growing animosity and resistance from individuals and groups opposed to liberal and
In his work about gay life in New York City, George Chauncey seeks to dispel the various myths about the gay lifestyle before the Civil Rights era of the 60’s. He distills the misconceptions into three major myths: “…isolation, invisibility, and internalization” (Chauncey 1994, 2). He believes a certain image has taken in the public mind where gays did not openly exist until the 60’s, and that professional historians have largely ignored this era of sexual history. He posits such ideas are simply counterfactual. Using the city of New York, a metropolitan landscape where many types of people confluence together, he details a thriving gay community. Certainly it is a community by Chauncey’s reckoning; he shows gay men had a large network of bar, clubs, and various other cultural venues where not only gay men intermingled the larger public did as well. This dispels the first two principle myths that gay men were isolated internally from other gay men or invisible to the populace. As to the internalization of gay men, they were not by any degree self-loathing. In fact, Chauncey shows examples of gay pride such a drag queen arrested and detained in police car in a photo with a big smile (Chauncey 1994, 330). Using a series of personal interviews, primary archival material from city repositories, articles, police reports, and private watchdog groups, Chauncey details with a preponderance of evidence the existence of a gay culture in New York City, while at the same time using secondary scholarship to give context to larger events like the Depression and thereby tie changes to the gay community to larger changes in the society.
In 1968, Esther Newton work was one of the first major anthropological that studied the homosexual community in the United States. Newton’s PhD thesis “the drag queens; a study in urban anthropology” examined the experiences, social interaction and the culture of the drag queens. In various kinds of theatrical settings there were men who dressed and performed as women, or as an expression of their sexual identity (Newton, 1968).
The Stonewall riots opened the doors to the rise and fall of numerous different homosexual actions groups. The differences in the groups were like night and day and the theories behind them changed with the times. In the 1990’s a group made its debut by coming out strong and forceful. Their handbook stated, “We need you. Because we are not waiting for the rapture. We are the apocalypse.” This became part of a dyke manifesto. A manifesto that changed lesbian views, a manifesto that brought with it a ‘fierce lesbian movement’, it brought confrontation to lesbian politics. They proudly announce their slogan “We are the Lesbian Avengers and We Recruit!”
In an effort to legitimize all subcategories of sexuality considered deviant of heterosexual normatively, queer theory acknowledges nontraditional sexual identities by rejecting the rigid notion of stabilized sexuality. It shares the ideals of gender theory, applying to sexuality the idea that gender is a performative adherence to capitalist structures that inform society of what it means to be male, female, gay, and straight. An individual’s conformity to sexual or gendered expectations indicates both perpetration and victimization of the systemic oppression laid down by patriarchal foundations in the interest of maintaining power within a small group of people. Seeking to deconstruct the absolute nature of binary opposition, queer theory highlights and celebrates literary examples of gray areas specifically regarding sexual orientation, and questions those which solidify heterosexuality as the “norm”, and anything outside of it as the “other”.
In every walk of life, people seek refuge from the judgmental perception of their contemporaries. Thus, many people live in secrecy. For them, secrecy is an absolute necessity in dodging undesired scrutiny and maintaining normalcy in public. When it comes to gender and the expression of it, lines are often blurred. While some hide, others brazenly parade their sexuality in public and their alternative perspectives on gender roles. In “The Bowery as Haven and Spectacle” from Gay New York, by George Chauncey, explores the emergence of the Bowery “fairy” bars, and how they became a sanctuary for the queer and working-class of New York City. He discusses in great length the tension that arises between the middle-class and working-class, the bars as a spectacle and a place to be entertained, the solicitation of sex work, and the makings of gay culture in the bar scene. The lines of gender were blurred when men took up cross dressing and the mannerisms normally associated with women. On the other hand, Merril Mushroom, writer of "How to Engage in Courting Rituals 1950's Butch-Style in the Bar", complies a laundry list of rules for butch lesbians on methods of attracting other women. Here, females cross gender boundaries and take on masculine personas. With this said, both pieces show the development of alternative gender identities. However, this switch in gender roles seldom occur outside the bar scene. Despite the semi-public gender blurring, those who identify with this lifestyle still feel the need to express themselves in an environment most accommodating to their blatant disregard of gender norms. The aforementioned pieces answer questions in regards to why one must live in secrecy, and how this secrecy gives way to the developme...
Another topic of interest is the growing amount of violence experienced by women in Canada, specifically among minority women and the LGBTQ community. As noted by Faulkner (2006), homophobic sexist violence has been on the rise and the debate surrounding this issue is the lack of attention being paid to homosexual girls and women. The intersections of race/ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation all determine the type of crime that is perpetrated against the victims but has been ignored by researchers, reducing the complexity of ...
The Stonewall rebellion has been considered the birth of a new wave of a liberation movement that changed the world for millions of lesbians, gay men, drag queens, and drag kings of all races, ethnicities, and ages. Yet, it was certainly not the first raid nor the first moment of protest for homosexuals. The raid at Stonewall was preceded by decades of police harassment of gay establishments. The first recorded raid of a gay bathhouse was in 1903, at the Ariston Hotel Baths at 55th and Broadway in New York where 26 men were arrested. Seven of them received sentences ranging from four to 20 years in prison (Chauncey, 1994). Countless raids, arrests, and imprisonments occurred in the decades that followed.
Greenwich Village, the art and cultural center of New York, was the setting for what would be one of the most influential moments in the history of the Gay Liberation Movement. On the streets of the village, a white, brick building stands amongst the other stores and restaurants in the area. Looking at the building from the outside, one can hardly notice anything that stands out. A large, vertical hanging sign displays the word “Stonewall.” However, a sign on the front window reads, in white writing, “We homosexuals plead with our people to please help maintain peaceful and quiet conduct on the streets of the village.”
While attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a journalism student, Mr. Landon noticed a lack of night life venues catering to students and triangle area residents identifying as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Queer (LGBTQ). “As a self-identified homosexual, it frustrated me that there weren’t any LGBTQ clubs in Chapel Hill. Despite having a large LGBTQ population there was nowhere for us to go out at night and party in an atmosphere that was acceptive; so I decided to do something about it” (Landon). However, as a student, Mr. Landon lacked the financial capital and the time needed to start his own LGBTQ nightclub in Chapel Hill. What was feasible for Mr. Landon, though, were takeover nights at typically straight bars in Chapel Hill. Takeover nights are when a club allows a third party to use their location and services to host themed parties which are atypical to what the club normally offers. This led to the incorporation of Jermaine Landon Events, which would be dedicated to providing LGBTQ club and bar nights for those who identify as LGBTQ and their allies.
In a structured society, as one we’ve continued to create today, has raised concerns over the way society uses the term queer. Queer was a term used to describe “odd” “peculiar” or “strange” beings or things alike, but over the centuries societies began to adapt and incorporate the term into their vocabulary. Many authors such as Natalie Kouri-Towe, Siobhan B. Somerville, and Nikki Sullivan have distinct ways of describing the way the word queer has been shaped over the years and how society has viewed it as a whole. In effect, to talk about the term queer one must understand the hardship and struggle someone from the community faces in their everyday lives. My goal in this paper is to bring attention to the history of the term queer, how different
Humans have established their own rights in society for many, many years now. However, because some humans differ from the norms that are built in society, they are shunned and denied their rights until they conform to society’s norms. There has been numerous groups of people who have been denied their rights in America. African Americans, immigrants, Native Americans, and gays have been isolated simply because that is the way that they were born into this world and others do not find them “normal”. There is another group that has also been mistreated though; people who identify themselves as transgendered. A good portion of society is unknowingly misinformed about these kinds of people.
In relation to how sexual minorities like lesbians are marginalized by the power elite in society, Judith Butler explains the politicization of sexuality through the performance of sexual identity by constantly rearticulating and re-establishing heterosexuality as the norm. Ironically, the term “heterosexual” cannot claim authority as ...
If the constitution promises equality before the law, what justification can there be for clearing rights to any member of society? More specifically what justification can there be for clearing rights to gays and lesbians? Lots of questions come to mind when the topic of gays and lesbians having equal rights as any other citizen in society would have. Should gays and lesbians have equal employment opportunities? Should they have the right to adopt a child, and should they have the right to marry their own sex partner. Well of course they should have the right to do all of these things just because they are human beings also.
According to Lawrence (n.d.) adult LGBT community has a potential spending power of over $600 billion per year. As a result, gay people are perceived as a ‘dream market’, with the mind of the general public being more open and growing in the acceptance of gay lifestyles, this market will bound to become more desired (Hughes, Monterrubio, & Miller, 2010). Therefore, more tourists’ agents are showing interest due to its obvious economic benefits,...