Finding Queer Life through Allies: The Geography and Intentions of Mainstream-Oriented, Ostensibly LGBTQ-Supportive Businesses in a Smaller Metropolitan Area of the U.S. South

Andrew H. Whittemore

Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2022, vol. 112, issue 7, 1958-1973

Abstract: This article details a study of the geography and intentions of mainstream-oriented businesses that publicly display lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)-related symbols and signs. The setting for this study was the four-county Durham–Chapel Hill metropolitan area in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Findings show how the distribution of these businesses mirrors various demographic, political, and policy indicators of where LGBTQ and LGBTQ-friendly populations live in this smaller metropolitan region of the conservative southeastern United States. Employee interviews revealed a typology of critical, performative, and managed allies among these businesses. Critical allies had adopted practices that allow a sexually and gender-diverse, although largely White, segment of LGBTQ people to visibly work and consume on their premises, whereas performative interviewees’ ostensible allyship was more purely about marketing. Other businesses are constrained in their potential to more visibly market to LGBTQ people or be critical allies due to their role as franchisees. Given that a majority of these business’s activism was substantive, and building from Ghaziani’s (2014) concept of anchor institutions, I argue that these businesses show how the material culture of a large segment of LGBTQ people takes on a particular geography within Durham–Chapel Hill. Within limitations, mainstream-oriented businesses displaying LGBTQ symbols and signs offer another means of examining how LGBTQ life and visibility extend beyond gayborhoods.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/24694452.2022.2038068 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:raagxx:v:112:y:2022:i:7:p:1958-1973

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/raag21

DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2022.2038068

Access Statistics for this article

Annals of the American Association of Geographers is currently edited by Jennifer Cassidento

More articles in Annals of the American Association of Geographers from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().