I was recently introduced to a queer geography project called Queering the Map. It’s a simple platform—an interactive online map hued in pleasing pinks, greens, and blues that participants can plop pins down on, locating and describing queer spaces or sites of their own queer experiences.
The map is heavily freckled with pins, and users can scroll across the globe and read snippets of queer moments and see the places in which they happened. This association of place to intimacy feels remarkably romantic.
I am completely charmed by Queering the Map and this sense of place, a personal and emotional association with a location based on experience.
When I think of the places I have lived, the cities, neighbourhoods, and homes I have spent time in, each space resonates with a distinct character, deeply influenced by the experiences, feelings, and affections I’ve had within them.
This has caused me to further reflect on my own queer space making.
I’ve spent much of my life trying to find community and create my own spaces, forming a sense of place. What points on the map would I mark? Where have I made my “home”?
The places that have reached that divine level of “home” always remain in my mind. They are easy to define, details of the physical space rooted in my senses. There is comfort in these spaces. I feel as if I know them deeply and, in return, they know me.
Relationships to places are just as defined by experience and emotion as our relationships with each other. The street corner where we first kissed is as much a part of the story as we are.
We develop impressions of places just as we do people, and perhaps places are impressed by us. A city is no less personal to you, knows you no better, than a close friend. The value we hold to a “home” can be as meaningful to us as family. A place is as queer as those who inhabit it.
Place experience ties me to my identity in the same fashion as interpersonal experience. It’s a fundamental piece of my sense of self. I have developed attachments to the spaces where I was able to show up, wholeheartedly queer, and feel welcomed.