During the last LiPS lecture of the year, Catherine Nash, a professor of

Geography from Brock University, gave an interesting talk on an emerging

field of scholarship entitled Queer Urban Landscapes: Politics, Social Life,
and Urban Transformations. Professor Nash noted that she studies the
recursive relationship between people and places that places shape us just
as much as we modify them. With this, explained he work on Church and
Wellesley, which is the gay village of Toronto.
Nash examines the development of the neighborhood over time, noting
that the current neighborhood is only a tame version of what they once were.
Many cities now market their gay villages to tourists and signs of tolerance,
and though the LGBTQ community has made strides in terms of acceptance,
it has come at the expense of much of the community itself. There has been
a creation of a globalized notion of a good gay citizen, one who fits into
what our society has deemed as acceptable. For many transgendered
people and people of color, these neighborhoods nor longer serve as a
refuge. This raises the question about who the space is being preserved for?
Are these neighborhoods really for the LGBTQ community, or for a small
segment that fits into what society has deemed acceptable gay?