Queer Spaces as Counterpublics

This paper investigates how queer women and nonbinary people (referred to as non-males) find space within a heteronormative context that actively resists their existence. In their modes of formation, these spaces actively resist the straightening and commodification of queerness and empower the community in a subversion of patriarchal norms. Using Seattle’s context, the authors investigate historic queer non-male spaces along with two contemporary case studies using archival research, oral histories, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews. The result is an identification and examination of two different forms of counterpublic spaces utilized by the queer non-male community to create locations of queer belonging: the exclusive/inclusive space, investigated through the case study of a local lesbian bar, and the non-exclusive/ inclusive space, represented through the case study of a women’s sports bar. Both serve as places of resistance and empowerment. While both create spaces of belonging for queer non-males, the former achieves this by establishing an exclusive space, while the latter does so through a non-exclusive space that actively supports queer non-males. By engaging the inclusive/exclusive dichotomy the cases offer insights into the complex dynamics of identity, community and belonging for queer non-males.