Geographies of Sexualities 'Down Under': Gay and Lesbian Geographies in Australia

2017 | Gender Studies

Australia is both postcolonial and multicultural, comprised of diverse settler (Anglo-Australian), migrant and Indigenous groups, and this context provides a uniquely broad scope in which to explore the intersections of sexuality with race, ethnicity, gender and class. This book is the first in-depth overview of gay and lesbian geographies in Australia. Through focusing on this particular national context, this book makes a range of conceptual and empirical advances in geographies of sexualities. It argues that Australia has played, and continues to play, a critical role in developing geographical knowledge about gay men and lesbians. Over the last decade, research into gay and lesbian geographies in Australia has grown immensely and this volume distills what is telling about the Australian context and highlights its wider importance for understanding geographies of sexualities. Its diverse cultural context provides scope for interpreting the raced and ethnic divergences within gay and lesbian geographies - including exclusions of ethnic and indigenous non-heterosexuals from communities of origins, and racism within 'Anglo' gay and lesbian spaces.

Likewise, the spatialities of gay men and lesbians display both similarities and differences, and this book elicits these variations, adding to work on the intersections of space, gender and sexuality. Crucially, not only does the book review and interrogate current literature, but it presents and analyses new empirical data drawn from a range of ethnographic, archival, media and census sources. This includes work on: the rural town of Daylesford, Victoria; the regional city of Townsville, Queensland; inner-city and suburban Sydney and Melbourne; the isolated provincial capital of Darwin, Northern Territory; and nationwide census and interview data on same-sex couples. Through this material, the book puts forward new empirical-cum-conceptual discussions of gay and lesbian lives, communities and place-based experiences in Australia, which advances geographies of sexualities.

Andrew Gorman-Murray (Author)