LGBT place management : representative politics and Toronto's gay village

In 2014, Kristyn Wong-Tam was the city councillor for what was then Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale, containing the city's well-known gay village ("the Village"). First elected in October 2010 and re-elected in 2014 and 2018, she identifies as an openly queer Chinese Canadian. In this chapter, we explore how Wong-Tam's election and tenure on city council reveal that being a queer-identified municipal politician does not necessarily equate with unproblematic acceptance by the LGBT community, in the context of Wong-Tam's efforts to revitalize the Village in anticipation of World Pride, which Toronto hosted in June 2014. In particular, we consider critiques that brand some revitalization activities as exclusionary, neoliberal, and homonormative to demonstrate that queer politicians represent a diverse and not necessarily unified LGBT com­munity. Taken together, these examples support our contention that the hurdles encountered by queer politicians often differ from those of their heterosexual counterparts. That is, perceptions about their political decision making are typically grounded in their sexual orientation.