Metropolitics

The Emergence of Transnational Queer Organizing Across a Hardening US–Canada Border

Elizabeth Hessek — 2025-09-30T05:00:00Z

LGTBQ+ refugees in the United States not only face the violence of the nation's immigration policy but are also constrained by international agreements that limit Canada's ability to offer refugee status to them. Elizabeth Hessek describes how these challenges have created opportunities for transnational networks to support queer refugees wherever they may be.
As migration control has surfaced as a barometer of national sovereignty in public debate, recent migration scholarship has rejected

- From the Field / LGBTQ+, queer, community organizing, refugees, United States, Canada, North America, borders, immigration, immigration policy, networks

The Struggle to Preserve Hanlan's Point Beach as Queer Social Infrastructure

Ahmed Allahwala — 2024-05-28T05:00:00Z

The march of neoliberal urbanism poses grave threats to nature and the people that use it. In this article, Ahmed Allahwala considers how activism against the City of Toronto's plans for a music venue on Hanlan's Point Beach, an important site for 2SLGBTQ+ life and history as well as a sensitive coastal area, might inform preservation struggles against such threats, in and beyond Toronto.
Nestled along a wooded stretch of environmentally sensitive freshwater dunes, Hanlan's Point is a sandy

- From the Field / beach, LGBTQ+, queer, social infrastructure, Canada, Toronto

Consent-Based Social Dancing Spaces and the Right to the City

Rebecca Krisel — 2020-06-30T05:00:00Z

Consent-based programs in social dancing venues in New York City are an initial step in supporting social dancing as the “right to the city.”
The #MeToo era has ushered in a global conversation about sexual harassment and explicit sexual consent that has spread to all facets of our society from college campuses to the film industry. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, some New York City nightlife establishments such as House of Yes in Brooklyn and Nowadays in Queens have taken the initiative

- Essays / right to the city, nightlife, New York, consent, gender, LGBTQ+, #MeToo

Culture and the Nighttime Economy: A Conversation with London's Night Czar and Culture-at-Risk Officer

Amin Ghaziani — 2019-11-12T06:00:00Z

Amin Ghaziani describes the high closure rate of LGBTQ nighttime venues in London, and the city's recognition of these venues' intertwined economic and cultural significance.
From 2006 to 2016, the number of LGBTQ bars, pubs, and nightclubs in London declined by 58%, falling from 125 venues to 53. Figure 1 shows the spatial distribution of these closures. The impact was most acute in central London.
An audit by the Greater London Authority (GLA) found that 44% of all nightclubs, 35% of all

- From the Field / LGBTQ+, homosexuality, night, London, United Kingdom, England, culture, nighttime economy, nightlife

Marielle Franco and Brazilian Democracy at a Crossroads

Natália Alves & Isabella Gonçalves Miranda & Felipe Magalhães — 2018-06-26T05:00:00Z

Marielle Franco's life and death raised questions about the limits of Brazil's New Republic. It revealed the rising stakes, particularly for women and people of color, following the 2016 coup. In this piece, urban activists Isabella Gonçalves and Natália Alves and geographer Felipe Magalhães place Franco's embodied politics as a direct challenge to the regressive policies and aggressive austerity of the current regime.
We live in times when a culture of violence is a vocal minority of the

- From the Field / social movement, security, violence, corruption, neoliberalism, Latin America, Brazil, LGBTQ+, feminism, activism, Rio de Janeiro, queer, critical racial awareness, austerity, militias, queer theory, state violence, coup

How Anti-Trans Bathroom Bills Hurt Girls and Women

C. Ray Borck — 2017-05-16T20:02:21Z

Do recent “bathroom bills” protect girls and women from sexual predators? Sociologist C. Ray Borck shows how—contrary to popular belief—gender-segregated public restrooms do not keep girls and women safe from violence. Public restrooms play an important role in public health, especially in urban contexts, and should be available and safe for all people regardless of gender identity or expression.
The national conversation in the US about whether or not transgender and gender-nonconforming

- Debates / gender, LGBTQ+, transgender, trans*, gender-nonconforming, gender violence, gender segregation, cisgender, girls, women, sexual violence, bathroom bill, HB2, sexual assault, hegemonic masculinity, masculinity

All the Gayborhoods are White

Marcus Anthony Hunter — 2015-05-19T05:00:00Z

The urban “gayborhood,” the place where gay men and women found refuge for their sexuality from bigotry, is gradually changing demographically and culturally in today's “post-gay” era. In his review of Amin Ghaziani's book about the implications behind this transition, sociologist Marcus Anthony Hunter considers the omission of race from our understanding of the traditional gayborhood, and reflects on the role of social exclusion in urban spaces characterized by their inclusion of marginalized

- Reviews / gentrification, Chicago, gender, United States, homosexuality, exclusion, neighborhood, race, gay, LGBTQ+, gay flight, gayborhood

Gay populations as gentrifiers in Paris and Montreal

Colin Giraud & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-02-22T05:55:00Z

Are “gay villages” a sign of gentrification? A comparison between the Marais in Paris – an area gentrified before becoming a gay neighbourhood – and the Village in Montreal – more gay than gentrified – reveals differences between gay communities, as well as the relevance of a gender-based analysis of the city.
From the 1980s onwards, research in the US and Canada highlighted the specific role of homosexual populations, essentially male, in the renovation and regeneration of central districts

- From the Field / France, gentrification, gender, Paris, Montreal, homosexuality, Canada, gay, LGBTQ+, gaytrification

Homosexual City, Homophobic Banlieue?

Éric Fassin & translated by Christina Mitrakos — 2011-03-09T06:30:00Z

Is homophobia prevalent in social housing projects? Is sexual orientation the new divide between civilizations? Éric Fassin shows how condemning sexism in the banlieues not only reinforces the opposition between “us” and “them,” but also contributes to fueling it.
In 2009, two books on homosexuality in the banlieues were published. The subtitle of Homo-ghetto, written by Franck Chaumont, and published on October 1st, describes “gays and lesbians in the projects” as “the stowaways of the

- Debates / ghetto, banlieue, homophobia, racism, gender, homosexuality, race, gay, LGBTQ+