Gay ghettos for the new millennium : Oxford Street meets mogenic.com and the question of queer space

![CDATA[Much work has gone into investigating of the ways public and private spaces have been used by various groups. Recently, this work has extended into the sphere of the Internet. The destabilization of the public/private binary is applicable to the formation of GLBTIQ/lesbigay/queer spaces, both online and off. Historically, slogans like "don't ask don't tell" and "consenting adults in private", as well as "behind closed doors" etc. have relegated homosexuality to a private space - the homosexual is constituted as a ‘private’ being. Furthermore, stigmas associated with queer identity have reinforced this notion of the homosexual subject as relegated to the private space—young people particularly are reluctant to disclose their sexuality or appear as anything other than heterosexual beings. However, the relegation of non-heterosexual relationships to a private space only is not without challenge. As an example, the 1979 (circa) slogan "Out of the Bars and onto the Streets" queers the notion of what was an appropriate space. The Internet is, in some respects, the extension of the bar - a place where the lesbigay community creates its own space to blur the lines of the enforced public/private confinement. This paper will explore ways the Internet acts on and in the lives of lesbigay youth, particularly in regards to ways that various spaces work on the production of particular subjectivities. The paper will examine the ways identities and ways of being are discursively policed and played with by lesbigay young people in Internet spaces. Through this examination the ways that lesbigay youth are exploring and potentially challenging the ways that private and public spaces influence and regulate their lives as lesbigay subjects is highlighted.]]