Sexualities, Cities and

Abstract

As part of a broader investigation of the connections between sexuality and space, researchers in a number of disciplines have explored the relationship between particular sexual practices and identities and urban space – either at a generic level or in terms of particular cities around the world. There are a number of intersecting strands to this work. First, there is research that explores the cultural construction of the city – the city as it is imagined and portrayed in popular culture – and that investigates how this construction shapes possibilities and limitations for sexual practices and identities. For example, in terms of western gay male practices and identities, Kath Weston (1995) shows how US metropolitan centers were (and still are) constructed as places more open to male homosexuality, stimulating “the great gay migration” in the post‐war United States. For other groups labeled as “deviant” the city may also be constructed positively, in terms either of its liberal atmosphere or of the possibility of anonymity. But this association can lead to the city itself being considered “deviant” or dangerous, and therefore as an unsafe place. This connection is forcefully articulated in relation to two issues: prostitution and (sexually transmitted) disease (STD). In nineteenth‐century England, for example, moral panics about prostitution centered on city streets as danger zones, and moral regulation served to limit women's access to urban public space. In terms of disease, similar moral panics over STDs, most notably HIV/AIDS, have brought about policies to “clean up” parts of the city associated with certain sexual practices – perhaps most famously in New York City during Mayor Giuliani's administration.