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If one assumes that all human relationships are spatial, a context in which the social discourses of people are practiced and defined, one can argue that space consists of more than its objective geography - it is also a communication environment. Simultaneously, space involves the finding and creating of particular locations in which one can come to know themselves and be known by others. ... ” As such, the composition of space enables and demands daily negotiations of the boundaries between the physical and the ideological.
Space thus becomes cultural space - a place of contested perception and negotiated understanding, a place where people of all sorts encode their sense of self, neighborhood and community. ... Consequently, a community is bound by cultural space. ... Attributes of identity interact with space, and the phrase "identity politics" may be used when defining shared identity characteristics of group pride and/or dissent from negative assumptions or stereotypes in order to gain access to public and private domains. ... Identity – queer identity – has long been connected to issues and ideas of space, and the construction of queer places and queer space has established a community by which a unique social group is given voice and significance. ... ” The gay community is important in providing a space where gay people can be themselves and identify with other gay people, but it “exists and [is] defined through bonds that are imagined, and are to be distinguished … by the style in which they are imagined. ... ” Queer identity cannot exist socially without expression and representation – expression and representation is a component of the very identity itself. ...
“Part of the political success of continued existence of queer communities is how visible they are in a special context.” Although queer spaces and places have existed throughout history, the queer bar remains “the unique expression of queer lifestyle that have encouraged an identity that is both public and collective, and have become seed beds for a collective consciousness.
Approximate Word count = 1428
Approximate Pages = 5.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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