Why are both public and private interests within cities becoming increasingly supportive of the creation of “gay space”?
Based on the public interest, “gay space” is important to support creative and high-tech industries. San Francisco, Washington, and San Diego, are all designed as high-tech areas in United States. According to Harvard University economist Edward Glaeser’s statistical analysis, gay workers do a better job than heterosexual (?) individual (Gates & Florida, 2002). Thus, creating diversity and inclusiveness within the population of high-tech industry areas can help to attract creativity and talent in a wide labor pool.
For private interests, the gay space is perceived as a safer space than, say, the Granville Strip in Vancouver. On the heteronormative Granville Strip, women experience more sexual harassment and aggressively heterosexual behavior by hyper-masculine men. The gay space within the clubhouses on the Eastside of Vancouver is safer for straight women, lesbian, and queer individuals who seek the less or non-heteronormative culture outside of the Granville Strip.
Dancing on the Eastside of Vancouver is preferable for young people because the space is less crowded and more diverse. One female subject interviewed in a study noted, “I think there’s more transgendered sort of sexuality happening in the indie scene probably than there is in mainstream scenes” (Boyd, 2008, p. 77). Indie events are more open to and tolerant of different expressions of sexuality. Thus, the diversity of sexual performativity at indie events is supported by private interests because of those events’ reputation for safer spaces and less heteronormativite.
How are heteronormative spaces created within cities such as Vancouver?
To f...
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...ces are more gender dichotomous, as most places are still dominated by gays and lesbians.
Creating a friendly queer space is important for most women who feel that the public space is dominated by men. The transgendered community is also affected by male violence. In order to protect female and gender variant people, the initial step is to create a harmonious space that welcomes every gender position, including transgender, gender variant, gay, lesbian, and queer. Creating an online community or chat room can be a helpful way to assimilate those marginal gender positions so that they can communicate openly, sharing their personal experiences and stories.
Works Cited
Gary Gates, Richard Florida.(2002), Technology and Tolerance: Diversity and High Tech Growth. Retrieved on April 8th from: http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2002/12/winter-technology-florida
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Cañas, K. A., & Sondak, H. (2014). Opportunities and challenges of workplace diversity: Theory, cases, and exercises (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
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