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Lookup NU author(s): Mark Casey
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The experiences of lesbians and gay men in creating visible ‘gay quarters’ or queered sites within the cityscape have been the focus of much work on sexuality, gender and urban space. In contrast only limited attention has been given to their experiences and understandings offered around the setting of the ‘home’ and/or ‘the private’. Everyday meanings of ‘home’ vary from defining the private, shelter, identity, safety and security, through to the setting of the (heterosexual) family unit. However, such limited understandings of home have been critiqued by theorists who have increasingly drawn attention to the home as a multi-dimensional and multi-layered phenomenon. The paper will draw on these critiques and data from twenty-three in depth semi-structured interviews with lesbians and gay men in Newcastle upon Tyne in problematizing the ‘home’ as a private or secure space. Through focusing on experiences of ‘home’, safety and the act of de-dyking/de-gaying the home, it will be argued that the lesbian or gay home not only problematises the public/private binary, but positions ‘home’ as a multi-dimensional site, and one which cannot be uncritically conflated with the concept of ‘household’.
Author(s): Casey ME
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Unpublished
Journal: Sociological Review
Year: 2007
ISSN (print): 0038-0261
ISSN (electronic): 1467-954X
