Provincetown queer: paradoxes of ‘identity, space, and place’†

^†Borrowed from Waitt (2003, p. 167).

Abstract

Provincetown, MA, located at the tip of Cape Cod, has transitioned over the twentieth century from a predominantly Portuguese fishing village to a magnet for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals and queers, both as tourists and year-rounders. Newcomers have fostered change – economically, socially, and culturally – to which the town's predominantly straight old-timers have responded with a libertarian, generally accepting stance. Accommodation to newcomers – both ‘good gays’ and ‘sexual rebels’ – with its attendant social and cultural challenges, has not been without conflict. Today, economic gentrification and an influx of workers of color test the community's resolve to maintain and promote a culture of diversity and acceptance, as members cope with ever-more challenging economic issues, including escalating housing, and living costs. Provincetowners also confront other troubling demographic changes, especially declining school enrolments caused by the so-called ‘straight flight’ and an ever-increasing number of households without children, reflecting the transition to a GLBTQ majority. Today Provincetowners retain an edgy, risqué lifestyle, where community decisions are negotiated through small-town democratic institutions, and where citizens intersect across social, economic, and cultural divides. This paper examines Provincetown as a laboratory to interrogate how citizens accommodate others, as they grapple with uncertainties inherent in a predominantly seasonal – and diverse – tourist economy.

Keywords:

• gays and lesbians
• gender
• Provincetown
• sexual citizenship
• tourism

Notes

^†Borrowed from Waitt (2003, p. 167).

Circuit parties are an international phenomenon which took off in the late 1990s, and bring thousands of gay men to pre-determined venues, including Amsterdam, Sydney, and Provincetown.

This term refers to the many visitors who come to Provincetown from other US regions. A popular tourist destination, Provincetown is visited annually by thousands of visitors from the US Mid-West and South, Ontario, Canada, and elsewhere, whose comportment reflects relatively conservative styles of dress and demeanor. Many arrive on tour buses, and are unaware of the town's sexually diverse population.

This term refers to motorcyclists who trek to Provincetown in groups, many riding Harleys and wearing distinctive club colors.

This term, taken from Jagose (1996) and others (Bell & Valentine, 1995; Butler, 1990; Waitt et al., 2008; Weeks, 1999), refers to expansive range of sexualities and genders, straights, bisexuals, gay men, lesbians, cross-dressers, transsexuals, and other gender boundary-crossers. Queer, as I argue elsewhere (Faiman-Silva, 2004, pp. 184–191) interrogates the normal and heteronormativity, by pushing boundaries of social acceptability and social propriety, not only in Provincetown, but in other sexually transgressive milieus globally.

This is the name given to the row of benches on Commercial Street in front of Town Hall, where tourists sit to observe the ‘comings and goings’. Sharing the bench and the banter are tourists, year-rounders, gays and straights, reflecting the town's rich diversity and tolerant milieu.

‘Non-family households’, a US Census Bureau classification, are households consisting of single residents or non-relatives sharing a housing unit, include gay and lesbian couples or unmarried partners (Burton, 1996, p. 3; Nofield, 1996; US Census Bureau, 2001).

This was before passage of the December, 2003, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision that legalized gay marriage beginning on 17 May 2004.

In citizenship discourses, the term ‘good gays’ refers to individuals who conform to herteronormative social and behavioral standards, such as a middle-class lifestyle, domestic partnership (or marriage in Massachusetts), children, and other evidence of ‘passing’ in heteronormative society; ‘bad gays’, sometimes called ‘sexual rebels’ or ‘sexual outlaws’, push heteronormative social, sexual, and behavioral boundaries, in dress, demeanor, and lifestyle. Sexual outlaws include cross-dressers, drag queens, transsesxuals, S&Ms, butch lesbians, and others who challenge mainstream notions of sexuality or sexual boundaries.

See, for example the Provincetown Tourism Office and Visitor Services Board (VSB) website, http://www.provincetowntourismoffice.org/index.aspx; Provincetown Business Guild (PBG) website, www.ptown.org; Mark Chestnut, The Gay Vacation Guide; http://gaytravel.about.com/; http://gaytravel.about.com/gaymassachusetts/p/P_town_profile.htm; http://ptown.gaycities.com/?gclid=CPy09f7__ZwCFUdM5QodJkaNaw