Chapters 6 and 9, Respectively) Have Been Published
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MOVING ‘OUT,’ MOVING ON: GAY MEN’S MIGRATIONS THROUGH THE LIFE COURSE By Nathaniel M. Lewis A thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in the Department of Geography in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada March, 2012 © Nathaniel McAllister Lewis, 2012 i Abstract This thesis explores how gay men make migration decisions through the life course. Recent studies of queer migration fall into two categories: (1) the role of the state and its heteronormative policies (e.g., family reunification-based immigration policy or criminalized homosexuality) and (2) queer migrations within countries, which employ narrative approaches but often presume a linear, usually rural-to-urban trajectory of migration among young queer people fleeing one place and emancipating themselves elsewhere. This study nuances the dynamics of migration decision-making among gay men, adopting a life course approach that examines how historical and social contexts, institutions, and individual circumstances and subjectivities convene to shape migration trajectories. For this research, I use the migration narratives gay men living in two cities— Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and Washington, D.C., U.S.A.—to capture the dynamics of migration decision-making in two different locational contexts. 48 interviews with Self- identified gay men (24 in each city) ground this study. Respondents were asked about their reasons for migrating, the community, home, and family environments in sending and receiving places, changes in aspects of health, well-being, and relationships before and after migrating, and aspects of everyday life after moving to Ottawa or Washington, D.C. The focus on two capital cities was adopted not only to examine places that draw internal migrants from a variety of places, but also to elaborate on the dynamics of gay life in two mid-sized cities overlooked in sexuality and space literature, and on the ways in which the institutions of these two “government towns” have simultaneously attracted and regulated gay men and other sexual minorities. ii I advance several findings in this study. First, coming-out migrations are both much less linear than traditionally conceived and are influenced more by the internal social dynamics of places than flat characterizations of places as homophobic or backward. Second, the dynamics of the places that gay men leave and come to are often quite literally embodied in terms of health and well-being. Third, the government town is a paradoxical place that has been queered by the emergence of gay rights-seeking and advocacy regimes, yet continues to regulate gay men’s lives in diffuse ways. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Audrey Kobayashi, for her support of this research and my development as a scholar. She not only helped me to conceive this project, but has provided guidance on applications, publications, and numerous other aspects of my career. The faculty and staff at the Department of Geography at Queen’s University have been exceptionally helpful to me during the past four years. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Betsy Donald and Dr. Mark Rosenberg for their assistance with this thesis and with the preparation of other articles, as well as Dr. Kathleen Lahey (Faculty of Law), Dr. Mary-Louise Adams (Kinesiology, Cultural Studies) and Dr. Benjamin Forest (Department of Geography, McGill University), for serving on my thesis committee. I would also like to thank my mentors in the sexuality and space community, including Dr. Michael Brown, Dr. Larry Knopp, Dr. Robert Vanderbeck, and especially Dr. Andrew Gorman-Murray. Their insights have been especially helpful in the development of this project and other areas of my work. Thanks are also due to Sheila MacDonald, Joan Knox, Kathy Hoover, and Sharon Mohammed for their assistance with multiple teaching duties and grant and conference applications. I gratefully acknowledge the support of Queen’s University, the Association of American Geographers, and especially the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for supporting my research through the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. I am particularly indebted to the 48 men and the various members of the gay service and advocacy communities in Ottawa and Washington, D.C., for their participation in my research, without which the project would not have been possible. iv Thanks also to editors and reviewers at Social & Cultural Geography and Gender, Place and Culture, where portions of this research (versions of Chapters 6 and 9, respectively) have been published. Friends inside and outside of academic geography have been especially supportive during the Ph.D. process, particularly Catherine Fraser, Drew Bednasek, Yolande Pottie-Sherman, Gentry Hanks, Candice Christmas, Nicholas Brown, Kirsten Greer, Steven Everhardus, Giselle Valarezo, Adam Sleeter, Marc Silverman, Madeleine Wilcox, Brian Harman, Nickolas Tzoulas and Chad Foreman. My parents, Judy McAllister-Lewis and Deane Lewis, along with my sister, Emma Lewis, are the most important sources of love and support in my life and career. v Table of Contents ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………............................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....………………………………………………………...iv ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………...vi LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………………………….viii LIST OF FIGURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS …………………………………...ix CHAPTER 1—Introduction …………………………………………………………....1 Preface ……………………………………………………………………1 1.1—Queer Migration in the North American Imaginary ……………............2 1.2—Complicating Queer Migrations: An Empirical Approach ....................4 1.3—Chapter Abstracts .…………………………………………………...6 CHAPTER 2—Literature Review …………………………………………………..14 2.1—Migration Theory and Sexuality …………………………………..14 2.2—Medicalizing Migration: Gay Men and the Diffusion of HIV/AIDS …..16 2.3—Queer Consumers: Viewing Gay Migration through an Economic Lens …………………………………………………………………………..17 2.4—Sexuality and Space or Sexuality and the City? …………………..19 2.5—De-Centering Sexualities …………………………………………..24 2.6—From Places to Flows: New and Emerging Studies of Queer Migration ......................................................................................................26 2.7—Between Body and State: Gaps in the Study of Queer Migration …..29 2.8—Toward a Life Course Approach in Queer Migration Studies …………..32 CHAPTER 3—Methods …………………………………………………………..35 3.1—Methodological Approach …………………………………………..35 3.2—Queering the Capital: Selection of Study Sites …………………………..36 3.3—Terminologies …………………………………………………………..41 3.5—Interview Design …………………………………………………..44 3.5-1—Pilot Study Interviews …………………………………..46 3.5-2—Revised Interviews …………………………………………..47 3.6—Sampling Strategy …………………………………………………..50 3.7—Coding Process …………………………………………………………..54 3.8—Study Limitations …………………………………………………..55 CHAPTER 4—Gay Men’s Migrations from a Life Course Perspective ………………58 4.1—The Life Course as a New Approach to Human Development …………..58 4.2—Queering the Life Course …………………………………………..62 4.3—Integrating Mobility into the Queer Life Course …………………..64 4.4—Maturation, Identity Formation, and Mobility among Gay Men …..70 4.5—Placelessness to Permanence: Migration, Networks, and Social Support …………………………………………………………………..81 4.6.—Institutional Infrastructure and Community Identities …………………..86 4.7—Changing Historical Contigencies …………………………………..91 4.8—The Myth of the Homeland and ‘New’ Complexities of Queer Migration …………………………………………………………………..96 vi CHAPTER 5—Beyond Binary Places: Everyday Geographies of Moving Out as Coming Out …………………....................................................................................102 5.1—The Coming-Out Migration Narrative ..………...……………………...102 5.2—Updating the Concept of Coming Out …………………………………104 5.3—Complicating the Role of Place in Coming-Out Migrations …………106 5.4— There was probably a Little Voice in me: Recognizing Difference, Planning Journeys …………………………………………………………109 5.5—‘Waiting for things to Happen:’ Moving Out to Move Forward …112 5.6—‘There is that Fear …:’ Moving due to Possible Rejection …………117 5.7—‘New City, Nobody Knew Me:’ Moving Out to Seek Anonymity …119 5.8—‘So I really do it for my Mother:’ Moving Out to Mitigate Social and Familial Burdens …………………………………………………………123 5.9—The Importance of the Everyday: Seeing the Grey Zones of Queer Migration …………………………………………………………………128 CHAPTER 6—Segmented Journeys of Moving Out as Coming Out …………133 6.1—One-Way Journeys: Linearity in the Coming-Out Migration Narrative …………………………………………………………………133 6.2—Migrations as ‘Scouting Trips’ …………………………………………135 6.3—Moving Out and Going Back In …………………………………138 6.4—Migrations as Coming-Out Tests and Triggers …………………………141 6.5—Journeys in the City: Encountering the Imagined ‘Community’ …144 6.6—Journeys ‘Back Home’ …………………………………………………147 6.7—Conclusion: Rethinking Moving Out as Coming Out …………………150 CHAPTER 7—Embodied Emigrations: Health Experiences and Migration Decision-making …………………………………………………………………154 7.1—Connecting Queer Migration and Health …………………………154 7.2—Embodied Emigration: Emotional Experiences of ‘Out-of-Placeness’ …159 7.2-1—Bullying and Victimization …………………………………163 7.2-2—Concealing Sexuality …………………………………………165 7.2-3—Embodying Stress: Anxiety, Depression, and Suicide Ideation …………………………………………………………169 7.3—Health After Migration: Encountering ‘The Scene,’ Encountering Risk ………………………………………………………………………………………...176 7.4—Minority Stress and Migration: The Qualitative