LGBTQ communities, public space and urban movement : towards mobility justice in the contemporary city

Catherine J. Nash, Heather Maguire, Andrew Gorman-Murray

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

Abstract

Introduction: This chapter examines the relationship between 'just' public urban space and mobility justice for LGBTQ communities in Toronto, Canada, and Sydney, Australia. The mobilities considered are movements across and between neighborhoods in these cities by LGBTQ people. We argue that mobility justice is contingent upon creating more accessible urban space for all citizens accounting for the social diversity of the city, including its LGBTQ communities. The relationship between urban spaces and mobilities is thus iterative: mobility justice is predicated on having access to public spaces in and through, which to move freely, and that movement also produces and shapes just urban spaces. This relationship is processual. As we have shown in earlier work (Gorman-Murray & Nash, 2014; Nash & Gorman-Murray, 2015a, 2015b), recent social, political and legal gains have enabled some LGBTQ people to move more freely and visibly across wider spectra of Toronto and Sydney than in the past, when they were 'closeted' in private spaces, red-light districts and gay villages. These gains include equality in marriage, family formation and succession law and protection through anti-discrimination legislation. We have argued that this new social, political and legal landscape has engendered 'new' queer mobilities and contributed to a reshaping of LGBTQ inner-city neighborhoods. We extend this analysis by thinking about these changes in terms of 'justice' - just public urban spaces and mobility justice. We draw on Low and, Iveson's (20 16, p. 16) evaluative framework for "the justice of public spaces" to analyze the relationship between just public urban spaces and mobilities. This framework draws out five lenses of social justice in urban life and its diversity: public space and distributive justice; public space and recognition; public space, encounter and interactional justice; public space and care and repair; and public space and procedural justice. We begin with a discussion of scholarship on sexuality, gender and urban spaces with a focus on the emergence of so-called gay villages as political, social and economic hubs of LGBTQ urban life in many mid- to large-sized cities in the Global North· We then turn our attention to how the 'new mobilities' approach can be utilized to understand how changing LGBTQ mobilities are reshaping neighborhoods and access to public space in Toronto and Sydney. Next, we employ Low and Jveson's (2016) five lenses of justice to evaluate how these changes have materialized in more just urban spaces and mobilities.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMobilities, Mobility Justice and Social Justice
EditorsNancy Cook, David Butz
Place of PublicationU.K.
PublisherRoutledge
Pages188-200
Number of pages13
ISBN (Electronic)9780429434587
ISBN (Print)9780815377030
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • sexual minority community
  • public spaces
  • cities and towns
  • social justice
  • Sydney (N.S.W.)
  • Toronto (Ont.)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'LGBTQ communities, public space and urban movement : towards mobility justice in the contemporary city'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this