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Abstract
Homosexual sociability space in Santiago is not socially homogenous. Beyond non-heterosexual identities segmentation (gay, lesbian, queer, BDSM, etc.), the present article proposes a reflection observing certain social distinctions or differences that come into play to create a hierarchy among gay and lesbian individuals within that space. Using a qualitative approximation, we analyze the discourse of homosexual men and women about ways to display homosexuality in different places in the city, as well as some sociability practices used in homosexual venues. The resulting social hierarchy is understood through two central subjective rules: discretion and good taste, dynamic mechanisms that perpetuate the distance among groups within the same sociability space, and to some extent reproduce the city’s class structure. Given that material means to privatize and sophisticate homosexual expression are unequally distributed in Santiago, the resulting differentiated social networks end up configuring the visibility strategies of homosexual identity played out in the city in the last years.
Notes
1. This situation is well represented by the Latinobarómetro Survey results evolution. Facing the question “How justifiable is homosexuality in a 1 to 10 scale?,” where 1 is totally unjustifiable and 10 totally justifiable, the average answer increased from 1.8 in 1990 to 5.3 in 2009, showing the growing legitimacy of this sexual identity. Nevertheless, some ambiguity toward it persists. In the 2011 National Survey carried out by Universidad Diego Portales, homosexuality was considered a valid option by 54.7% of interviewees; however, support for marriage and adoption by homosexual couples was considerably lower: 33.8% and 22.5%, respectively.
2. In defining a gay neighborhood, we use Emilia García-Escalona’s (Citation2000) proposed model, considering three common factors: (a) the existence of commercial and service networks for homosexual men and women, such as bars, discos, saunas, and diverse shops; (b) the presence of associations that claim and defend equal legal rights, represent the neighborhood inhabitants and possibly fight against AIDS and for its prevention; and (c) the visible manifestation of homosexual culture signs such as the rainbow flag and displays of drag queen shows and of the homosexual body.
3. The same use of the word has been observed in Argentina (Meccia, Citation2011; Sívori, Citation2005) and Brazil (Lins França, Citation2007)
4. As evidence, a pejorative connotation of the word gay for younger groups has been observed in diverse studies about homophobic bullying in Chilean schools.
5. Colloquially, gay-friendly places are differentiated from alternative places as follows: The former “tolerate” homosexual clients, while the latter play with not making sexual category distinctions. This differentiation is used in the information sites about LGTBI meeting places that allowed us to draw the cartography discussed in the focus group.
6. In Chile, distinctions made by market surveys that classify the population according to income and consumption levels are commonly used to refer to social classes, where ABC1 corresponds to the upper groups, C2C3 to intermediate groups, and DE to lower groups.
7. An important part of Santiago’s suburbs, especially the southern districts, is where social housing was constructed as part of the slum eradication program during the military dictatorship, resulting in the creation of large pockets of poverty and their ghettoization.
8. Cuico(a): in Chile, colloquial word for a wealthy person. Usually a noun, it can be used as an adjective when referring to the person’s activities, his or her possessions, or the places he or she goes to (the cuico party, the cuico car, the cuico school). Cuico is a subjective category depending on the position of the observer in the social hierarchy.
9. Flaite: in Chile, colloquial word for people who boast about their popular origin. Like cuico, it can be used as a noun or as an adjective when referring to the person’s activities, his or her possessions, or the places he or she goes to (the flaite disco, the flaite sweatshirt, the flaite neighborhood). It is also a subjective category depending on the observer. It has a pejorative connotation and refers to a slightly aggressive and defiant attitude.
10. The term modern has been replaced by versatile, probably as a result of the popularization of Internet meeting platforms where this term is used as an alternative to active or passive.
11. Regarding income, Chile is the most unequal country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the year 2014, with a Gini coefficient of 0.5. In 2013, 0.1% of the population concentrated 19.9% of the country’s total wealth. When applying the Human Development Index (IDH) to Santiago, the eastern area of the city (the so-called Barrio Alto) gathers districts whose indicator is always above 0.86, while in the southern and western suburbs, this indicator varies between 0.782 and 0.657, thus pointing at a huge gap in life conditions that is necessarily reflected in the social representations associated to each neighborhood and its inhabitants.
12. The closure of Barrio Santa Lucia’s cybercafés after a police raid against clandestine hooking places is a good example. EMOL’s edition at the time (March 1, 2012) published the news with the following headline: “In the very center of the city operates a network of unregulated ‘cyber love hotels.’ These are Internet venues that offer more than navigation in the net. Their activities are not under sanitary supervision and users could be exposed to sexual abuse.”
13. 2011 was a year full of demonstrations in Chile. Protests against dam construction in Patagonia, but mainly the student movement demands to change the Chilean social protection system, mark a turning point in the political use of the streets.
14. It is important to note that in Chile different organizations have celebrated Gay Pride at different times of the year. The Unified Movement of Sexual Minorities does so in September (springtime in the Southern Hemisphere) to separate it from the typical American celebration (Stonewall’s riots) and instead to pair it with a much more significant date for Chileans: Chilean Independence Day and the commemoration of 1973 coup d’état. On the other hand, the Homosexual Liberation and Integration Movement (MOVILH) organizes the parade by the end of June, synchronized with the rest of the world’s celebrations. According to Robles (Citation2008), this is due both to different strategies tackling homosexual visibility and to the historical division of Chilean homosexual movements.