Paper short abstract:

This paper examines a series of recent historical and cultural shifts in St. John's, Newfoundland related to morality and LGBT tolerance, and in doing so addresses the relationship between secularisation and technology in the privatisation of sex and desire.

Paper long abstract:

In most parts of Canada, the growth of tolerance towards gays and lesbians and the adoption of values tied to liberal mutliculturalism have played key roles in reshaping where and how queer people meet one another. At the same time, practices of queer cruising have themselves changed with the rise of on-line dating and the global use of geosocial applications. In St. John's, Newfoundland, conceptions of privacy have long been set within and against expectations for moral conduct, whether enforced by the state or by religious officials. Though Newfoundland's position within Canada has been shaped by its geographical location and persisting attachments to a distinct cultural identity, it has neither been isolated from federal projects of liberal tolerance nor wholly invested in them.

The widespread use of dating and hook-up apps has contributed to the redefinition of boundaries of public and private. Though sex in spaces clearly designated as public has not entirely disappeared, the availability of acceptable modes of connection and widespread forms of queer visibility have forged new models for romantic and sexual connection, and with them new kinds of surveillance. On-line communication in particular has opened up a range of new options for queer sociality, yet has also foreclosed and/or privatised many others. This paper outlines a series of historical and cultural shifts in Newfoundland related to morality and LGBT tolerance, and in doing so addresses the relationship between secularisation and technology in the privatisation of desire.