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‘Where the state freaks out’: Gentrification, Queerspaces and activism in postwar Beirut

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  • John Nagle

Abstract

In this article I illuminate the production and erasure of Queerspaces in Beirut as part of postwar gentrification. A dual Beirut has emerged within assemblages of sectarian power, sexual citizenship and political economy. Commercial Queerspaces tacitly incorporated into the neoliberal and sectarian state exist while the ‘Queer unwanted’– spaces and people deemed transgressive to the moral order – are violently erased by state and non-state actors. These dual spaces expose the limits on life for Queer communities. To analyse these dynamics, I turn to the testimonies of LGBTQ activists in Beirut in relation to the possibilities offered by Queerspace. While activists note the exclusions – class, gender and sexuality – of commercial Queerspace that restrain political agency, they have powerfully asserted radical intersectional politics into recent revolutionary anti-sectarian waves of protest. This politics is marked by articulating Queerness as a project of connecting marginality for all excluded groups in Lebanon’s postwar order and by a queering of sectarian/neoliberal space that has hitherto cleansed undesirable LGBTQ bodies. This article draws on extensive fieldwork in Beirut (2011 to 2020), thus permitting longitudinal research of LGBTQ activism.

Suggested Citation

  • John Nagle, 2022. "‘Where the state freaks out’: Gentrification, Queerspaces and activism in postwar Beirut," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(5), pages 956-973, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:59:y:2022:i:5:p:956-973
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098021993697
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Usmaan Farooqui, 2020. "Politics of neutrality: Urban knowledge practices and everyday formalisation in Karachi’s waterscape," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(12), pages 2423-2439, September.
    2. Gavin Brown, 2007. "Mutinous Eruptions: Autonomous Spaces of Radical Queer Activism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(11), pages 2685-2698, November.
    3. John Nagle, 2013. "‘Unity in Diversity’: Non-sectarian Social Movement Challenges to the Politics of Ethnic Antagonism in Violently Divided Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 78-92, January.
    4. Gilly Hartal, 2019. "Gay tourism to Tel-Aviv: Producing urban value?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(6), pages 1148-1164, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Preetika Sharma & Kanchan Gandhi & Anu Sabhlok, 2023. "Queering utopia: Pride walks in modernist Chandigarh," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(14), pages 2799-2815, November.

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