Lecture with Dr. Rae Rosenberg

Assemblages of queer consumerism and geographical productions of vulnerability

This lecture discusses how queer consumerism renders Toronto’s gay village a place of vulnerability for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, Two-Spirit, and more (LGBTQ2+) youth experiencing homelessness. Based on interviews with LGBTQ2+ youth experiencing homelessness, adult LGBTQ2+ activists, and members of the village Business Improvement Area (BIA), I explore the varying perceptions and experiences of vulnerability in the village through an assemblage of queer consumerism. I frame this assemblage through a triad of consumption – that of substances, sexualization, and capital investment – which marks queer spaces of and within the village as zones of vulnerability. While perceptions of this vulnerability vary across LGBTQ2+ community members with differing stakes in the space of the village, I argue that this assemblage of queer consumerism disproportionately exposes LGBTQ2+ youth experiencing homelessness to risks associated with predatory adults, substance use, and policing. This lecture presents how queer consumerism facilitates tangible and material challenges to Toronto’s gay village, reducing the neighborhood’s potential to support some of the most marginalized members of the city’s LGBTQ2+ community.