This paper examines the ambivalent phenomenon of flourishing queer spaces in Turkey despite an increasingly authoritarian regime. It explores how queer events reshape everyday life spaces that are not typically coded as queer or political, including student clubs, festivals, art exhibits, performances, and sporting events. It aims to show how queer uses of space disrupt the authoritarian imaginary of (hetero)normalized, nationalist space. Following the 2016 failed coup, this paper will study state repression against queer events, and reveal how homo/bi/transphobic discourses and policies trigger immediate responses on the spot as queer groups stand up to local authorities and police, relocate events, hide information, and involve safer spaces.
Even though the question of space has been central to queer and gender studies, the research has primarily focused on urban spaces, queer neighborhoods, LGBTI+ bars and nightclubs (Bell and Valentine, 1995; Valentine and Skelton, 2003; Nash, 2013). This paper positions queer space as an alternative to heteronormative spatialities, challenging normalizing mechanisms of power and offering possibilities for resistance. This allows us to redefine space through the lenses of performativity and as a tool for political action, and to reveal how queer communities invent strategies to overcome political tensions through the use of space. It also aims to launch a reflexive discussion on the possibility of a queer ethnographic practice, which “would not only focus on researching queer lives,” but would also challenge the traditional methods used in scientific research and subvert the established orientations including scientific distance, objectivity, and abstraction (Rooke, 2009: 150; Haraway, 1988). This paper is based on a three month ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Istanbul and Ankara during the summer of 2021.
Mots clés : space|political authoritarianism|heteronormativity|queer community|Turkey
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