Rethinking the homonormative? Lesbian and Hispanic Pride events and the uneven geographies of commoditized identities

Abstract

Scant academic attention has been paid to intersectional LGBT events. Miami Beach is home to a women’s circuit party called Aqua Girl and a Hispanic LGBT Pride called Celebrate Orgullo. This behind-the-scenes study on their planning challenges the invisibility of intersectional LGBTs as consumers and demonstrates that they can be targeted as a profitable niche market. I utilize the homonormativity critique as a framing. It describes the commercialization and mainstreaming of LGBT populations as potentially oppressive and normative. However, I challenge the a-spatial essentialisms that characterize the literature. For example, the naming of gay white men and gentrified gayborhoods as the homonormative subject/spaces/places ignores how others can make use of homonormativity elsewhere. For instance, the entrepreneurial, tourism-centered government of Miami Beach targeted both lesbians and Hispanic LGBTs for these events. The success and sponsorship of these events is due not only to the popularity of Miami Beach with tourists, and the large local Hispanic population, but also the scarcity of similar events elsewhere. These events have homonormative aspects but defy reductive labeling or accusation. Therefore, it is important to consider the relationality of local manifestations of homonormativity while avoiding the essentialism or dismissals of de facto ‘homonormative subjects, spaces, or events’.

RÉSUMÉ

On a accordé très peu de recherche universitaire aux événements inter sécants LGBT. Miami Beach est le théâtre d’une fête pour les femmes nommée Aqua Girl et d’un défilé Pride hispanique LGBT qui s’appelle Celebrate Orgullo. Cette étude dans les coulisses de leurs préparations défie l’invisibilité des LGBT inter sécants en tant que consommateurs et démontre qu’ils peuvent faire l’objet de cibles pour une niche rentable sur le marché. J’utilise la critique homonormative comme cadre. C’est une description de la commercialisation et de l’intégration dans le courant traditionnel des populations LGBT comme étant potentiellement oppressives et normatives. Cependant, je défie les essentialismes sans espaces qui caractérisent la documentation. Par exemple, l’appellation d’hommes blancs gays et de quartiers gays embourgeoisés en tant que sujet / lieux /espaces homonormatifs ne prend pas en compte comment d’autres peuvent se servir de l’homonormativité ailleurs. Par exemple, le gouvernement entreprenant et orienté vers le tourisme de Miami Beach a pris pour cible à la fois les lesbiennes et les hispaniques pour ces événements. Le succès et le parrainage de ces événements sont dus non seulement à la popularité de Miami Beach auprès des touristes et de l’importante population hispanique locale mais aussi à la rareté d’événements similaires ailleurs. Ces événements ont des aspects homonormatifs mais défient l’étiquetage réductif ou l’accusation. Il est donc important de réfléchir à la relationnalité de manifestations locales d’homonormativité et d’éviter en même temps l’essentialisme ou le rejet de « sujets, espaces ou événements homonormatifs » dans les faits.

RESUMEN

Se ha prestado escasa atención académica a los eventos interseccionales LGBT. Miami Beach es el hogar de una fiesta de circuito femenino llamada Aqua Girl y de un evento de Orgullo LGBT llamado Celebrate Orgullo. Este estudio con acceso a la planificación de dichos eventos desafía la invisibilidad de los LGBT interseccionales como consumidores y demuestra que pueden ser considerados como un nicho de mercado rentable. Se utiliza la crítica homonormativista como marco. Describe la comercialización y la integración de las poblaciones LGBT como potencialmente opresivas y normativas. Sin embargo, desafía los esencialismos a-espaciales que caracterizan a la literatura. Por ejemplo, el nombramiento de homosexuales blancos y barrios gais aburguesados como lo homonormativo sujeto/espacios/lugares ignora cómo otros pueden hacer uso de la homonormatividad en otros lugares. Por ejemplo, el gobierno empresarial y centrado en el turismo de Miami Beach se dirigió tanto a las lesbianas como a los LGBT hispanos para estos eventos. El éxito y el patrocinio de estos eventos se debe no sólo a la popularidad de Miami Beach con los turistas, y la gran población hispana local, sino también la escasez de eventos similares en otros lugares. Estos eventos tienen aspectos homonormativos pero desafían el etiquetado reductor o la acusación. Por lo tanto, es importante considerar la relacionalidad de las manifestaciones locales de la homonormatividad evitando al mismo tiempo el esencialismo o el rechazo de ‘sujetos, espacios o acontecimientos homonormativos’ de facto.

Keywords:

• Homonormativity
• tourism
• lesbians
• Latinos
• Miami

Mots clés:

• homonormativité
• tourisme
• lesbiennes
• Latinos
• Miami

Palabras clave:

• Homonormatividad
• turismo
• lesbianas
• latinos
• Miami

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Natalie Oswin and Juan Miguel Kanai for offering comments on earlier versions of this paper.

Notes

1. Intersectionality describes how seemingly disparate identities not only overlap in individual and group experiences, but in fact are mutually constitutive. It emerged from women-of-color feminists, particularly Kimberlé Crenshaw(1989, 1991), who coined the term, to describe the multiple marginalization of Black women specifically. It has arguably become the standard multidisciplinary approach for dealing with multiply marginalized subjects (Hancock, 2007; Hindman, 2011; McCall, 2005).

2. There has been some homonormativity literature associated with specifically racialized and gendered manifestations of homonormativity beyond gay white men (Kennedy, 2014; King, 2009; Yep & Elia, 2012).

3. See the thesis itself (Kenttamaa Squires, 2014) or a paper co-authored with Juan Miguel Kanai (Kanai & Kenttamaa Squires, 2014) for a greater discussion of some of the other entrepreneurial and promotional efforts of the city.

4. While events like Aqua Girl challenge universalizing stereotypes of lesbians as homebodies or living in poverty, this should not be taken to mean that there is, in fact, no difference between lesbians and gay men in terms of economic resources or visibility. For example, the attendance of Aqua Girl is still below that of many of the other non-women focused events and the admission and drink prices are also much lower, according to both Brown and Schwartz. Also, for a metropolitan area of several million people there are very few lesbian bars in metro Miami.

5. There are now Latino/Hispanic LGBT themed events in Dallas (https://texaslatinogaypride.com/), Kansas City (https://www.latinogaypridekc.com/), Portland, Oregon (https://latinogaypridepdx.com/), and Washington D.C. (https://www.latinoglbthistory.org/latinopride), and Black/African American themed events in Atlanta (https://atlantaprideweekend.com/), Cleveland (https://www.clevelandpride.org/home/movement-in-black/), Dallas (https://www.dallassouthernpride.com/), Washington D.C. (https://dcblackpride.org/), New York (https://www.facebook.com/nycblackpride), Orlando (https://www.orlandoblackpride.com/), Philadelphia (https://www.phillyblackpride.org/), London, England (https://www.ukblackpride.org.uk/) and Soweto, South Africa has a black lesbian event (https://www.sowetopride.co.za/). Albany has a Black and Latino Pride event (https://www.prideagenda.org/albany-pride-2014) and Seattle has an Asian themed LGBT event (https://www.prideasiaseattle.com/).

6. See Barcelona’s Girlie Circuit (https://www.girliecircuit.net/2015/es/main), Palm Springs’s Dinah Shore (https://thedinah.com/?gclid=CKXA09G6jqACFQENDQodA0-neA), and Key West’s Womenfest (https://www.womenfest.com/events/), amongst others.

7. I am influenced here by Jasbir Puar’s work on homonationalism. She uses this term, which is a combination of the terms homonormative and nationalism, to explain the recruitment of gay and lesbian populations (and gay-friendliness) for nationalistic, racist, and imperialist ends (2006). In her piece ‘Rethinking Homonationalism’ she writes that instead of framing homonationalism as an accusation, it should be interpreted as a particular analytic (or assemblage, to use her term) of geopolitical forces and neoliberal interests marking the historical moment when LGBTs become citizens deemed worthy of protection by states from homophobic Others. She writes that:

Homonationalism, thus, is not simply a synonym for gay racism, or another way to mark how gay and lesbian identities became available to conservative political imaginaries; it is not another identity politics, not another way of distinguishing good queers from bad queers, not an accusation, and not a position. It is rather a facet of modernity and a historical shift marked by the entrance of (some) homosexual bodies as worthy of protection by nation-states, a constitutive and fundamental reorientation of the relationship between the state, capitalism, and sexuality (Puar, 2013, p. 337).

8. For example, Schwartz told me that Aqua Girl has gender neutral restrooms and that organizers and participants are welcoming to transgender attendees. Also, after several false starts in 2016 the first Aqua Men event was launched as a pool party which raised funding for the Aqua Foundation like the main event.

9. Another literature on how LGBT populations are valued by municipal governments is influenced by Richard Florida’s ‘creative class’ theories. Florida used same-sex couple concentrations as evidence of ‘tolerance’, an attractive factor to said creative class. While most academic work on the impacts of Florida’s thesis has not specifically engaged racialized LGBT subjects or those outside the Global North, Singapore has been an exception (Oswin, 2012; Yue, 2007a). Audrey Yue, for example, noted that the city-state’s softening position on LGBTs demonstrated ‘how sexual recognition is constituted, not through the post-Stonewall politics of sexual rights, but of sexuality as a technology for cultural policy in the creative city’ (2007b, p. 366). My study similarly shows racialized and gendered sexuality as a technology for profit through tourism promotion and consumption instead of just politicized rights-based discourses.