Paper short abstract:

Spatial inequalities among queer individuals, rather than as an intersection of space and queerphobia, are examined as an integral part of social reproduction and differentiation processes that involve temporality, spatiality, and linguistic differences, as well as class and value.

Paper long abstract:

Queer lives and experiences, even within a single nation-state, display such a diverse range and inequalities that merit analyses of how gender and sexual diversity embody or produce diversity within itself. While intersectional perspectives have produced mostly lines of research that study separate axes of oppression (McNally, 2017), social reproduction theory-informed studies have highlighted the co-constitution of said axes as part of systemic realities in which class and the role of labour power are key components, if not the most relevant ones (Bhattacharya, 2017; Mezzadri, 2019; Jaffe, 2020). From this vantage point, territorial or spatial inequalities among queer individuals are to be understood as an integral part of how sexual and gendered hierarchies are (re)produced along spatial borders, and not as the simple intersection of queerphobia and space. This paper draws from current debates on how gender and sexuality relate to social reproduction theory (Sears, 2017), value theory (Hennessy, 2013), and the role of time and space (Rao, 2020) to inform the analysis of both quantitative and ethnographic data of spatial inequalities among queer people in Spain. Diversity and inequalities are analysed against a wider perspective than that offered by identity politics, whereas the specific role of linguistic diversity within Spain is studied as an integral part of how queer lives are reproduced. Rather than as a direct intersection of space and queerphobia, these inequalities and hierarchies are seen as part of “variegated geographies of social reproduction” (Bakker & Gill, 2019) or a “combined and uneven social construction” (Drucker, 2000).