Textové pole: Aleksander Aronovich, ID 425215 Textové pole: Masaryk University Textové pole:
Transnational Migration – Queer Migration to Urban Meccas Final Paper


Introduction: Transnational migration and the social integration of GLBT migrants into western gay
capitals


In this final paper, I will be addressing the issue of GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and
Transgender) transnational and internal migrants from rural areas or non-western countries into the
GLBT communities within western-style “gay capitals” or “Gay Meccas” and will discuss the different
motivations of GLBT people to migrate from their home communities and integrate into already
existing communities in the western world, and how this communities form. The paper will try to
cover the different obstacles of such migrations as well as the reasons and causes of it, giving a
historical overview of migration of GLBT people to urban centers and the beginnings of GLBT urban
communities, in order to understand the different social institutions and benefits which drive LGBT
people to migrate into such neighborhoods and communities.

Furthermore, the research will not only focus on the self-identification of those people, but the
reasons behind their decision to radically change their life settings in order to satisfy unique
needs which could not be satisfied within their own home environments and places of origin, such as
finding a partner or being able to freely self-express their gender identity or sexual orientation
without society’s heteronormative values and judgment. The paper will discuss and try to give
answers to issues such as self-identification with the GLBT community and personal identity of the
GLBT migrant as a whole, the different efforts of the receiving communities to accommodate the
needs of newcomers and the social norms within the GLBT community and the destination cities
regarding social stigma and approach to newly arrived immigrants into the community’s social
settings, such as community centers, bars and clubs, social gatherings et.al. The research will try
to look into specific groups and organizations of ethnic or social minorities within the GLBT
community in order to understand the need for the existence of such subgroups in the broader
community and how they participate in communal events and help integrate people into the wider and
broader GLBT environment of the “gayborhood” in a gay mecca.

What are the reasons and causes for the migration of queer/LGBT people into western-style gay urban
“meccas”? How did this communities form and how do they cope with these migrants? My hypothesis is
that the historical roots of the creation of such urban communities may lie in the structural and
economic uniqueness of these urban settings and how liberal their current societies are. The need
of LGBT people for a safe environment where they can live freely is understandable, yet it is
important to understand that in the case of transnational migration, legal issues as well as the
value of the home left behind stress the importance of this migration for the emotional state of
the queer individual as well as their striving for happiness and fulfillment, which according to
the historical period or the cultural setting of each country may also be the case of internal
migration within a country from a rural to an urban community. The queer migration is not a new
phenomenon in most cases, and most well established communities offer social services and support
for their members, which might also be a reason to why LGBT people might prefer a move to an
existing community rather than to create new communities in either rural settings or in urban
centers which are less known for their openness towards sexual minorities.

Historical background


“Starting around the mid-to-late twentieth century, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered
(LGBT) individuals transformed urban spaces into centers of social, cultural, and political
utility.” (Ruiz, 2012) Sexual minorities started flocking into urban centers seeking a refuge of
tolerance where they could enjoy the anonymity that a great city gives to the individual. These
environments weren’t just spaces where these groups of men and women could find sexual partners,
but also became the “epicenters of an international countercultural identity movement” (Ruiz,
2012). It was that movement that gave the first umbrella definitions to sexual minorities, then
considered deviants, creating and giving powerful meanings to words such as “gay” or “lesbians” and
creating communities and subcultures which could support them by challenging
heteronormative-cisgender ideals and by building businesses and institutions that gave them
legitimacy (Ruiz, 2012).

Gay identity is seen by scholars in different ways, and the two major views come from an ongoing
debate on whether non-heterosexual inclinations are predetermined or not, or in other words, do
they come from “nurture or nature”? This paper will discuss queer identity regarding it from a
constructivist point of view, as suggested by studies from the late 20^th century (Epstein, 1987;
Foucault, 1978; Lauria & Knopp, 1985). These scholars regard queer identity as a whole as socially
constructed in a process of “developmental outcomes”, which contradict the opposite idea that queer
identity is part of an innate predetermined identity (Ruiz, 2012). I will argue and regard this
issue as a more complex one, and will presume that sexuality is preordained, but that sexual
(cultural) identity, not the sexual orientation or gender identity itself, is socially constructed
and is a product and result of cultural influence created by people and culture, and not a natural
identity as it has been suggested by scholars like Foucault or by popular culture.

The beginnings of an established and organized queer urbanism which facilitated the building of
stable and broad queer communities in major urban centers began as described by scholars (Bailey,
1998; Castells, 1983; Knopp, 1990a, 1990b), began in the 1960’s and 1970’s, as a result of the
creation of vacancy in inner-city housing by the urban middle classes which were opting for quality
suburban housing. LGBT people were driven to these vacant inner-city neighborhoods in the search
for anonymity and the desire for political power, sexual experimentation and a sense of safety
(Ruiz, 2012). The critical moment which is seen as the beginning of gay migration to urban centers
is the Stonewall Riots beginning June 28^th, 1969. As a “catharsis” of expression for the repressed
LGBT minority groups in the United States, migration to San Francisco, as an example, increases
exponentially. In Paul Ruiz’s study, he notes that there is no accurate way of knowing exactly how
many LGBT newcomers immigrated to those major cities and their queer urban “gayborhoods”, but he
quotes from a study that followed the growth in numbers of gay businesses and organizations proving
growth from the end of the 1960s until the 1980’s proving the exponential growth of these
communities which created not only housing agglomerations of LGBT people but also a cultural, civic
culture, social and economic structure for a communal identity. Ruiz comments based on a study by
Castells (1983) that a second wave of usually affluent gay men flocked the already established
neighborhoods and their surroundings, replacing poorer members of the community and then purchasing
and renovating buildings and expanding into other areas, creating frictions with other minority
groups as in the case of San Francisco’s Mission district and the Latino minority, but also
creating economic interests as they improved the value of properties. Castells also explains how
and why Lesbian agglomerations are different and virtually don’t exist, as they lesbian women have
different natural interests such as the caretaking of children, less access to economic resources
and being more prone to male violence, they created secluded communities lacking the “obvious
physical characteristics” of subculturization common in gay male communities (Ruiz, 2012).

In his article “Urbanism and Gay Identity” (2012), Ruiz quotes from J. D’Emilio’s article “Gay
politics and community in San Francisco since World War II” where D’Emilio explains Gay
urbanization through the liberation movement as so: “The gay liberation movement […] began the
transformation of a sexual subculture into an urban community. The group life of gay men and women
came to encompass not only erotic interactions but also political, religious and cultural activity.
Homosexuality and lesbianism [became] less of a sexual category and more of a human identity.” And
so, in the decades that came after the 1950’s, LGBT people have sought to liberate themselves from
social stigma by moving to open-minded cities (Ruiz, 2012), where they organized civic societies
and associations which untied mainly gays and lesbians under shared values and goals. Such groups,
as the Gay Liberation Front and the Daughters of Bilitis, founded in California, gave the ground
for political activity and the creation of community centers and social groups along with the
already established gay and lesbian bars and nightclubs which supported the needs of the queer
communities in the urban agglomerations. Urbanism became the “platform for political power”, along
which LGBT people could create an identity and a counterculture (Ruiz, 2012).

Study cases


                The following part of the study will discuss several different cases of immigration
to gay meccas, in order to target the understanding of how and why GLBT people move and migrate
specifically to already existing communities. Several cities will be discussed, all of them are
considered to be western style cities, the study cases will discuss different subgroups and
circumstances, in order to bring a broad but brief overview of the reasons for queer migration into
urban gay meccas.


United States – Latinos in San Francisco


                Queer Latinos were a part of the LGBT migrations to San Francisco during the 1960’s
and 1970’s, during the midst of countercultural and social movement era, and were part of two
social and political cultures in the San Francisco Bay area, which brought to the eventual creation
of GALA, a the Gay Latino Alliance, which brought together people, skills and social networks. It
was an organization which sought to create a space for the development of a gender, sexual,
cultural and ethnic identity to gay and lesbian Latinos. The two clashing identities of the members
of GALA and all LGBT Latinos, was due to the fact that “Chicano” or “Latino”, as cultural and
social terms, were seen as heterosexual definitions, and the term “gay” was seen by the broad
society as mainly a racially constructed white term.  These two clashing understandings left little
space for the mixing of identities, leaving Latinos to deal with deep homophobia rooted in the
Latino neighborhoods which neighbors the gay area of the Castro and its more upscale surroundings.
Therefore, the struggle of GLBT Latinos was multidimensional (Horacio, 2003). The eventual success
of GALA’s challenging of the gay white and heterosexual Latino was their integration of identities
and challenging of social norms in the predominantly white gay counterculture, which brought to
their inclusion even if they were less visible in the Castro neighborhood, and in the process, they
not only gave a name but also created a strong subculture which was involved politically and
culturally in their surrounding’s stronger communities (Horacio, 2003).

East-West migration, the case of Poland


                In their article from 2013, “Like a Bomb in the Gasoline Station’: East–West
Migration and Transnational Activism around Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Politics
in Poland”, Jon Binnie and and Kristian Klesse discuss and examine the relationship between
transnational mobility, identity and politics around LGBT networks in Poland and Central Europe. In
their work, Binnie and Klesse found that it is difficult to separate economic factors from the
regular reasons which case the migration of LGBT people, and in the case of Poland, mainly
homophobia, and both are important in the decision making process of GLBT migrants who move in or
out of Poland. The main reasons for leaving the country are rooted in the high oppression sexual
minorities experience in Poland, which limit the possibility of freely self-express in Polish
society. The mass migrations of LGBT people from Poland, have helped shape LGBT politics in the
country and made it an important issue when promoting tolerance and acceptance, accusing Poland of
not being “completely and fully European”. Binnie and Klesse also explain how GLBT people in Poland
have romanticized other European Union countries as havens, especially the United Kingdom, causing
them to overlook internal issues of homophobia within London and the United Kingdom. Thus, creating
a reality in which GLBT poles leave the country dreaming of a multicultural and tolerant society,
and are many times disappointed due to xenophobia, homophobia and economic struggle and the
hardships any immigrant faces when trying to build the life they dreamed of in other countries
(Binnie and Klesse, 2013).


Australia – A teenage narrative


                In their work “It's About Time You Came Out: Sexualities, Mobility and Home.” Waitt
and Gormann-Murray relate the story of a gay male from rural Australia in four stories which
explain the pursuit for belonging and a home in Australia while dealing with local rural/urban
culture and gender roles, expressing the fluidity of socially constructed definitions about gender
and sexuality, trying to explain to queer historians and geographers the personal process gay youth
in Australia goes through when coming out and migrating to urban centers. The process, as explained
in Waitt and Gormann-Murrays research, begins in research and learning. The young gay man goes
through a period of exclusion and marginalization followed by an inner need to find a new home, but
when the young man leaves his home town, he deals with a crisis of identity also due to the change
in gender roles as perceived by him due to his roots in a rural and traditional environment, coming
to a liberal urban community which challenges all traditionally accepted and socially constructed
gender and sex roles, leaving the subject with a gender role identity crisis and a longing for the
familiar and a never-ending quest to find a place which feels familiar, taking from his own
experiences of his childhood’s sense of what is a home. Some of the pre-immigration research
nowadays is virtual and relies on internet searching and websites, giving the subject an idyllic
homecoming perspective of the reality of cities like Sidney and its gay community. When finally
arriving to a gay neighborhood in Sidney, the young man deals with identity issues as he firstly
finds himself, and gains confidence regarding his sexual and gender identity, but loses himself as
he does not fit in with the conventional urban gender roles and the mainstream gay culture set in
the gay gentrified quarters, and the outcomes of the social movements which sprung in the 1970’s.
The young gay male in this case will try to fit in, and style himself to fit the newly adopted
perceptions of gay masculinity, which in many cases lead to the use of alcohol, drugs and excessive
weight lifting, and objectify the newcomer that is socially tagged as “fresh meat”, all of which
may lead paradoxically to a sense of not belonging. Many young gay men see their rural roots and
homes in a demonized and negative way, and are thus trapped in a cycle of not belonging, and
recourse to looking for a third environment where to find themselves out of the gay quarters, but
still close to the city center, in order to increase the probability to finding a partner (Waitt
and Gorman-Murray, 2011).

Mexico and Central America – moving to the United States


                In an article published in The Atlantic in 2013, Amy Lieberman tells the story of
immigrants from the LGBT communities; that are on their way to a better life in the United States.
Although Lieberman does not discuss the target communities to which these immigrants are aiming
for, she tells about the immigration process, and specifically about the experiences they live
during their trajectory through Mexico. Lieberman quotes gay and transgender immigrants on their
way from rural and urban areas in Central America and Mexico, which pass through shelters on their
way to cross the border by land. These quotes tell a story of oppression, fear and hope. LGBT
migrants face a fear in the immigrant shelters which they seek to avoid; they are threatened by
other immigrants with physical and verbal homophobia, to a point that due to the increasing numbers
in gay and transgender migrants, some shelters have now started to specifically give services only
to LGBT migrants. "We're seeing more and more transgender migrants and it's difficult for the
migrant houses because they don't know where to place them," when trying to place a transgender in
a male or female dormitory of a non LGBT shelter, transgender people deal with homophobia and
transphobia to a point where they are neither accepted to their birth sex dormitory nor to their
assigned gender dormitories, creating a need for their own separate section, which most shelters
lack. As most heterosexual migrants are uneducated, they do not have the knowledge and tolerance
towards sexual minorities, resulting in violence and deaths of LGBT shelter seekers, which in many
times try to avoid such institutions in order to keep safe. According to Lieberman, 3% of all
migrants are transgenders, surpassing their percentage in the total population of 1% and the
percentage of women immigrants which travel by land. Due to these factors, many migrants stay in
the closet and hide their sexual and gender identities, causing them to be virtually invisible, and
the designated separate rooms to be no longer used by them in order to avoid being targeted.
Although many LGBT migrants saw the United states as their final destination, border control and
legal changes in Mexico City, which legalized gay marriage and has a stable and strong LGBT
community and tolerance policies, has caused many Central American LGBT migrants to change their
final destinations and remain in Mexican soil, benefiting from knowledge of the Spanish language
and Mexican culture, which has helped them integrate into one of Latin America’s biggest LGBT
communities.

Israel – Palestinians in Tel-Aviv


                In their 2008 study, “Nowhere to Run: Gay Palestinian Asylum-Seekers in Israel,”
Michael Kagan and Anat Ben-Dor describe Israel’s policies towards LGBT Palestinian asylum seekers
in Israel, which has in the past few years tried to promote itself in the western world as a
tolerant haven for LGBT people. But when it comes to LGBT Palestinians, Israel policies are
unsympathetic. Contrasting greatly with Israel’s vibrant gay-tolerant urban mecca, Tel-Aviv, in the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which are de jura a current part of Israel’s Jurisdiction, LGBT
Palestinians face deep oppression and brutal violence. In the Palestinian authorities, there have
been cases of cruel torture of men and transgender done by other Palestinian men, and sometimes by
authorities that accuse LGBT Palestinians of cooperation with the Israelis or/and of prostitution.
In the pursuit of refuge and protection, many LGBT Palestinians try to flee to the more tolerant
Israeli-Jewish majority cities, but Israel refuses to even review applications for asylum from LGBT
Palestinians, leaving them with only one possibility – to turn to the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva
for applications for asylum in Israel. In many cases, LGBT Palestinians are arrested in Israel and
sent back to Palestinian territories, leaving them defenseless and submitting them to further
violence and retaliation from their families and Palestinian authorities, putting their lives at
risk. Israel avoids dealing with asylum request from Palestinians due to security measures,
breaking several agreements and conventions and even disregarding Israel’s commitment by its own
law to human and civic rights, a fact that according to Kagan and Ben-Dor, Israel could avoid if
they did look at each request individually. Israel’s security policies cannot allow more
Palestinians in Israeli territory, but that leaves LGBT Palestinians with nowhere to turn, in a
geographic neighborhood that is known for its intolerance and oppression (Kagan and Ben-Dor, 2008).
Tel Aviv might have become a gay urban mecca, but its doors are only open for those welcomed by
Israeli policies.

Conclusion


            Gay megccas have been romanticized and seen by LGBT peoples as their final geographic
destination in life, they are idealized as places of sexual freedom where experimentation and love
can be found. The way to reach them is not without difficulty, and many deal with issues not
expected by the immigrants themselves, which in the case of western cultures, have stigmatized gay
epicenters as San Francisco and London as environments which completely suit the needs of LGBT
people due to their relatively tolerant multicultural, cosmopolitan societies. The above literary
overview and historical research only tell a small portion of a much broader phenomenon. Queer
migrations as we know them started during the 20^th century, but research on the topic is limited,
and the geography, psychology and sociological research of the subject is also lacking. The
different characteristics of this issue, such as violence, the displacement of sexual minority
refugees throughout the world, the development of a sexual and gender identity in rural areas and
out of the epicenters of gay culture, the unique case of transgender migrants and how the local
LGBT communities in gay meccas are dealing with sexual minority migrants as well as national and
regional institutions is not an issue that has been discussed or researched enough, even if the
beginning of its research came already in the 1970’s in the early years of what is now called “the
great queer migrations”, the social effects are poorly discussed and further knowledge is needed in
order to tackle this issue practically and help LGBT immigrants from ether rural areas in countries
where LGBT communities exist, or international refugees seeking asylum in gay-friendly
environments. Another issue which I found interesting during my research is the clash of multiple
identities and the inability of rural immigrants to truly incorporate into an already existing
community such as in the case of Latinos in San Francisco, Palestinians in Tel-Aviv, Poles in the
United Kingdom and rural youth in Sidney. The incapability of local institutions and community
organizations to incorporate and help the newcomers is worrying; especially due to the violence and
homophobia/transphobia these sexual minorities phase in their hometowns.

Further research propositions


Given the ability to further research this issue, I believe it is crucial to map the common
characteristics of all cases in western societies and also explore further cases of
Asian/Islamic/African societies and their LGBT migrants, not only in order to map the geaography of
these migrations and in order to understand the reasons behind them, but also in order to aid
organizations in dealing with newcomers and immigrants in the migration process, as well as helping
LGBT people to build local communities in areas where communal infrastructure for sexual minorities
is lacking, thus helping them build a safe and fulfilling life in their own home environments where
that is possible. Further research should not only focus on qualitative research of such cases as
research in this paper, but also a quantitative research which would gather data regarding the
issue as a whole, asking in each case about the factors which lead to migration, the reason behind
the destination choice, networks of support and institution, identity development and clashes,
social integration in existing communities, satisfaction with government and local authorities,
issues regarding asylum seekers and refugees and the legal status of them in each country. Such
data should be gathered from LGBT people throughout the world, a task that can nowadays be
successfully done via internet. Whereas in most developed countries such data could be relatively
easily gathered, in remote areas and underdeveloped regions throughout the world, such data will be
impossible to collect, especially because finding GLBT people in such places could be extremely
difficult. Working with local organizations in gay urban epicenters could resolve this issue only
if they have access and cooperation with already settled migrants from diverse backgrounds, which
could help create a quantitative research and a database of answers which could produce a more
accurate result and give answers to many more questions.


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