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Paper short abstract:

During the pandemic, queer performing artists adapted various digital platforms into makeshift performance spaces. Tracing the evolution of these spaces, I argue that the socio-political conditions of this moment rendered these spaces increasingly hostile and precarious for queer and trans* artists.

Paper long abstract:

During public health restrictions on in-person gatherings, physical performance venues across Toronto were shuttered for most of 2020-21. This paper examines how queer performing artists based in Toronto adapted social media, image-sharing, and live streaming platforms into makeshift digital performance spaces during this time. The queer arts community in Toronto was largely excluded from governmental income supports during the pandemic and many vulnerable artists responded to this relative abandonment by transitioning their performance work to platforms like Twitch, Zoom, and Instagram to continue earning a living. This paper traces the development and evolution of digital performance spaces over 2020-2021. While the shift to digital was a necessary response to the state of exception of the pandemic and in many ways made live performance more accessible to audience members, the socio-political conditions of this moment also rendered these digital performance spaces increasingly hostile to the always already marginalized. This paper critically assesses the politics and practices that have made digital performance spaces increasingly precarious for visibly queer and trans* artist, paying particular attention to how increasingly aggressive anti-trans, anti-queer, racist, and other far right political movements have worked to effectively push QTBIPOC artists off of public digital platforms and out of the digital performance spaces they built and curated.