The management of indigenous difference in Toronto's queer service sector

Abstract

While the ‘problem’ and ‘pathological’ logics pinned onto the bodies and minds of Indigenous peoples have been exposed as key contributors to the sustainment of white settler colonialism in Canada, their influence on the practices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) service providers working within queer service provision in Canada has received little scrutiny. This paper, evolving out of the narratives of 41 non-Indigenous LGBTQ research participants, showcases how the biopolitics and necropolitics of settler colonialism percolate within queer service provision in Toronto. I pay particular attention to the narratives of encounters with Indigeneity used to lock Indigenous peoples into ‘deficits’ – used to sustain their invisibility, erasure, and containment. In reviewing the research participants' narratives, this paper calls for a settler colonial analytic within queer service provision in order to start dialogue surrounding individual and practice approaches and the institutional structures that sustain white settler colonialism. Findings highlight the normative practices used by service providers and the ways in which those practices further white supremacist and settler colonial projects.