'Where the State Freaks Out': Gentrification, Queerspaces And

‘Where the state freaks out’: Gentrification, Queerspaces and activism in postwar Beirut

Nagle, J. (2021). ‘Where the state freaks out’: Gentrification, Queerspaces and activism in postwar Beirut. Urban Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098021993697

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Urban Studies 1–18 ‘Where the state freaks out’: Ó Urban Studies Journal Limited 2021 Article reuse guidelines: Gentrification, Queerspaces sagepub.com/journals-permissions and activism in postwar Beirut DOI: 10.1177/0042098021993697 journals.sagepub.com/home/usj

John Nagle Queen’s University, UK

Abstract In this article I illuminate the production and erasure of Queerspaces in Beirut as part of postwar gentrification. A dual Beirut has emerged within assemblages of sectarian power, sexual citizenship and political economy. Commercial Queerspaces tacitly incorporated into the neoliberal and sectarian state exist while the ‘Queer unwanted’ – spaces and people deemed transgressive to the moral order – are violently erased by state and non-state actors. These dual spaces expose the limits on life for Queer communities. To analyse these dynamics, I turn to the testimonies of LGBTQ activists in Beirut in relation to the possibilities offered by Queerspace. While activists note the exclusions – class, gender and sexuality – of commercial Queerspace that restrain political agency, they have powerfully asserted radical intersectional politics into recent revolutionary anti-sectarian waves of protest. This politics is marked by articulating Queerness as a project of connecting marginality for all excluded groups in Lebanon’s postwar order and by a queering of sectarian/neoliberal space that has hitherto cleansed undesirable LGBTQ bodies. This article draws on extensive fieldwork in Beirut (2011 to 2020), thus permitting longitudinal research of LGBTQ activism.

Keywords community, displacement, gender, gentrification, public space, queer, social movement

Corresponding author: John Nagle, Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, 69–71 University Street, Belfast BT7 1HL, UK. Email: [email protected] 2 Urban Studies 00(0)

᪈㾱 ൘䘉ㇷ᮷ㄐѝˈᡁ䱀䘠Ҷ֌Ѫᡈਾ㓵༛ॆ䗷〻Ⲵа䜘࠶ˈ䍍励⢩䞧ݯオ䰤Ⲵӗ⭏઼⎸ཡǄ ᭯⋫㓿⍾Ⲵ䳶ਸѝˈৼ䟽䍍励⢩ᐢ㓿ࠪ⧠Ǆ୶ъ䞧ݯオ䰤ᚴᚴൠ㶽઼≁ޜ൘ᇇ⍮ᵳ࣋ǃᙗ Ҷᯠ㠚⭡ѫѹ઼ᇇ⍮ѫѹഭᇦˈ㘼 “нਇ⅒䗾Ⲵ䞧ݯ”オ䰤˄㻛㿶Ѫ䘍৽䚃ᗧ〙ᒿⲴオ䰤ޕ Ӫ˅ࡉ㻛ഭᇦ઼䶎ഭᇦ㹼Ѫ㘵᳤࣋ᣩ৫Ǆ䘉Ӌৼ䟽オ䰤᳤䵢Ҷ䞧ݯ㗔փ⭏⍫Ⲵተ䲀ǄѪ઼ Ҷ࠶᷀䘉Ӌࣘᘱˈᡁ≲ࣙҾ䍍励⢩Ⲵ⭧ྣ਼ᙗᙻǃৼᙗᙻǃਈᙗ㘵઼䞧ݯ (LGBTQ) ⍫ࣘ Ҿ䞧ݯオ䰤ᨀ׋Ⲵਟ㜭ᙗⲴ㿱䇱Ǆቭ㇑䘉Ӌ⍫ࣘ࠶ᆀ⌘᜿ࡠҶ୶ъオ䰤ѝਁ⭏Ⲵᧂޣ࠶ᆀ ᯕ˄䱦㓗ǃᙗ઼࡛ᙗ˅䲀ࡦҶ᭯⋫㺘䗮ˈնԆԜ൘ᴰ䘁Ⲵ৽ᇇ⍮ᣇ䇞䶙ભ⎚▞ѝᴹ࣋ൠѫ 〘ᕐ◰䘋Ⲵ䐘ᇇ⍮᭯⋫Ǆ䘉⿽᭯⋫Ⲵ⢩⛩ᱟˈሶ䞧ݯ (Queerness) 䱀䘠Ѫ䘎᧕哾ᐤᄙᡈਾ ᒿѝᡰᴹ㻛ᧂᯕ䗩㕈ॆ㗔փⲴ亩ⴞˈԕ৺ሩаⴤ൘␵⍇нਇ⅒䗾Ⲵ LGBTQⲴᇇ⍮ /ᯠ㠚⭡ ѫѹഒփⲴオ䰤Ⲵ⹤ൿǄᵜ᮷สҾ൘䍍励⢩˄ 2011ᒤ㠣2020ᒤᵏ䰤˅Ⲵབྷ䟿ᇎൠ䈳ḕˈഐ ↔㜭ᇎ⧠ሩ LGBTQ㹼ࣘѫѹⲴ㓥ੁ⹄ウǄ

ޣ䭞䇽オ䰤ǃ䞧ݯǃ⽮Պ䘀ࣘޡޜ४ǃ傡䙀ǃᙗ࡛ǃ㓵༛ॆǃ⽮

Received August 2020; accepted January 2021

Introduction uneven processes of urban reconstruction and gentrification which construct some sex- Two narratives iterate sexuality in Beirut, ual lives as useful and deserving of protec- the capital city of Lebanon. In the first, tion while others are cast outside of the body international writers celebrate Beirut as politic. On the one hand, gentrification has ‘Gayrut’, the ‘gay paradise of the Arab created a space of implicit tolerance for spe- world’ (Reid-Smith, 2012), an oasis noted cific assemblages of sexuality, class and for its purported sexual liberalism relative to power, which are non-threatening to institu- the rest of the Middle East (Healy, 2009). tionalised homophobia, especially gender- The ‘gay scene’ – coinciding in a select few normative and middle-class LGBTQ people bars and clubs – generates the ‘rainbow (see Moussawi, 2018). On the other, this economy’, adding up to an estimated dynamic is mirrored by the ruthless, violent US$83 million annually (Sioufi, 2013). In cleansing of spaces and forms of sexuality the second narrative, Beirut is marked by deemed to be transgressive. Working-class state and non-state actors engaged in a joint gays, sex workers, refugees and transpersons, enterprise to violently erase other and the spaces they inhabit, are brutally cast Queerspaces and of harassment against outside of the domain of acceptable sexual LGBTQ individuals and activists framed as citizenship. threats to morality. These acts of persecu- The reinforcing nexus between gentrification are carried out under the auspices of tion and Queerspace is one of the most sig- Lebanon’s Penal Code, which criminalises nificant bodies of research in urban studies sexual relations ‘against the order of nature’ (e.g. Brown, 2007; Castells, 1983; Doan, (Helem, 2008). 2007; Doan and Higgins, 2011; Ghaziani, Rather than contradictory representa- 2015; Hanhardt, 2013; Knopp, 2004; Nast, tions, these two narratives expose the logic 2002; Oswin, 2005). A core debate centres on of the city’s postwar order wrought through whether gentrified spaces can be harnessed Nagle 3 for Queer counterpublics to emerge or if it social cleansing, population displacement, channels LGBTQ activism into assimilation- sectarian segregation and violence (see Akar, ist and exclusivist politics that reproduce 2018; Fawaz, 2009; Krijnen, 2018; Krijnen inequalities. These debates are often posi- and De Beukelaer, 2015). Gentrification in tioned within broader analyses of neoliberal Beirut intersects with the colonisation of forms of entrepreneurial urban governance political and social life by sectarian networks that construct some queer lives as economi- and with the rise and erasure of various cally important while others are cast as Queerspaces. Thus, rather than see worthless sexual citizens. Gentrification may Queerspace as bound up with entrepreneur- open up opportunities for new Queerspaces ial governance, in which sexual difference is but its corollary is a ‘tightening regulation of increasingly marshalled for fostering urban the types of sexualised spaces in cities’ (Bell competitiveness (Bell and Binnie, 2004; and Binnie, 2004: 1818). Thus, rather than Hartal, 2019; Hubbard, 2013; Kanai, 2014), permit opportunities for LGBTQ rights to Beirut is marked by plural and uneven advance, critical scholars express anxieties modes of governance characterised by sec- with how ‘liberal queer strategies’ have tarian groups exercising control over space. become aligned with ‘urban modes of gov- In this environment, the policing of sexuality ernance that are often inseparable from neo- is not always performed by state actors but liberal, racist, nationalist, and militarist is devolved to non-state groups. logics’ (Oswin, 2015: 560). Queer activism in Beirut has drawn signif- The relationship between gentrification icant scholarly attention, particularly since and Queerspaces in postwar cities in which the first public queer movement in the Arab LGBTQ populations are criminalised is world emerged here (Merabet, 2014; lacking in existing analyses (though see Moussawi, 2018, 2020; Naber and Zaatari, Moussawi, 2015, 2018, 2020), particularly in 2014). Moussawi (2018, 2020), notably, connection to activism. In the postwar city, analyses the different strategic choices the logic of gentrification is bound up with deployed by activists contesting and enga- reconstruction, which drives new forms of ging with dominant models of Euro- social exclusion and violence rather than American LGBTQ organising. While some rebuilds peace (Akar, 2018; Fawaz, 2009; activists form professional NGO advocacy Nagle, 2016). It is to this absence that this groups that pursue LGBTQ rights, others article speaks. Towards this, I address two engage in more radical formations involved interrelated dynamics. First, I examine the in intersectional struggles that embrace coproduction and erasure of Queerspaces in multiple political projects, including anti- Beirut within the context of postwar gentrifi- imperialism, anti-racism and resistance to cation and reconstruction. Second, I turn to sectarianism and patriarchy (Naber and the testimonies and debates of activists in Zaatari, 2014). The potentiality of urban Beirut about the potentiality of Queerspaces space for queer political projects is central to as sites where new claims of local citizenship these analyses. Yet, while ‘gay spaces’ have arise out of insurgent place-making (Greene, emerged in Beirut, Moussawi (2018: 174) 2019). warns us not to assume that they can be Beirut is an important case study to read as evidence of societal tolerance since examine these issues. Postwar Beirut has wit- gender normativity and class shape LGBTQ nessed frenetic real estate activity, rapid gen- individuals’ access to space. How, then, might trification and concomitant processes of activists engage in queering space, contesting 4 Urban Studies 00(0) and deconstructing its existing meanings and college students in their early 20s to estab- exclusionary usages in order for radical and lished leaders in their late 40s. As same-sex intersectional politics to emerge? relations and non-normative gender is crimi- The article is also more broadly posi- nalised in Lebanon, resulting in the state tioned in postcolonial studies of gentrifica- harassment of activists, all interviews are tion and sexuality. While recognising the anonymised. Purposive sampling was used globalising trends of gentrification that drive for the selection of activists in order to gain the political economy dispossession, postco- inside-information-rich expertise. Since lonial perspectives stress the need to place same-sex relations are criminalised, informal diverse urban regimes within particular his- conversational interviews were conducted in torical, contextual and temporal forces, and a range of places specified by activists, not just as component pieces in the identikit including coffee shops and activist offices. rolling out of neoliberal governance from the An inductive approach was used to allow Global North to the South (e.g. Akar, 2018; the data generated from interviews to deter- Fawaz, 2009). Postcolonial work on sexual- mine common themes regarding strategies ity refuses to impose ‘Western’ ‘neocolonial’ and spaces used by activists. These themes constructs of sexuality – particularly the were then coded for analysis of emerging fixed binaries of straight/homo – and prog- categories related to how activists perceive ress onto places where sexuality is under- and use gentrified spaces for activism. The stood through a multiplicity of social and question of gentrification and activism, political processes (Meem, 2010; Moussawi, notably, was not one that I intended to 2020). Yet, at the same time, the legacies of research. It was an issue that activists often colonialism, globalism and transnational stressed in interviews as important in contex- activism collide to create complex sexual tualising sexuality and activism in the city. I epistemologies that are neither purely ‘local’ place this within a constructivist epistemol- or ‘Western’. ogy which focuses on understanding the The research in this article is based on social context in which individuals attach eight fieldwork trips to Lebanon from 2011 meaning to their social reality. I also refer to to 2020, thus permitting longitudinal reports by activists, human rights groups research of LGBTQ activism. It permits and media outlets, including Helem, Meem, analysis of the development of activism in Arab Foundation for Freedom and the critical immediate years after the emer- Equality, LebMash and Human Rights gence of public queer movements in Beirut. Watch. The research design focused on non- sectarian movements mobilising against Lebanon’s postwar power-sharing system. Sex in the gentrified city I draw on 40 interviews conducted with LGBTQ populations represent central fig- LGBTQ activists, human rights advocates, ures in debates about gentrification (Doan, representatives of political parties and inter- 2015). Within the literature on the emanci- national actors (e.g. development agencies patory city LGBTQ populations are agents and embassies). Interviews spanned 30 min- of gentrification, constructing enclaves that utes to 4 hours spread over a number of provide safe havens for communities fleeing days. Interviews with queer activists ranged from ‘unjust geographies’ (Soja, 2013), from leaders of professional NGOs to inde- places defined by homophobia and discrimi- pendent figures unaffiliated to advocacy nation (D’Emilio, 1983; Ghaziani, 2015: 3; groups. The age range of activists spanned Knopp, 2004). As Doan and Higgins (2011: Nagle 5

22) summarises, such ‘gaybourhoods’ were activist politics is disrupted by the realisa- ‘immensely attractive to young queer- tion that such spaces can be used to privilege identified individuals seeking to establish and render visible particular groups and their non-normative identities and create an expressions of sexuality while excluding oth- alternative and fully accepting community’. ers – transpersons, people of colour and While recognising the liberating potential of working-class LGBTQ populations. The Queerspaces within gentrification, the con- relationship between Queerspace and safe tested and exclusivist nature of these places space exposes how activism can reinforce looms large, particularly in terms of margin- rather than disrupt the dynamics of exclu- alising gender nonconformist populations, sion. Queerspace as a safe space suggests and by delineating neighbourhoods by class havens for expressions of alternative sexual- and race (Curran, 2017; Doan, 2007; Doan ity, but this poses questions in relation to and Higgins, 2011; Nast, 2002; Oswin, who is granted safety and who is vulnerable 2005). These dynamics of exclusion are in such spaces? Oswin (2005, 2015) and increasingly expedited by ‘entrepreneurial Hanhardt (2013) critique the LGBTQ move- governance’, in which gay districts feature in ment’s need for safety as colluding with place promotion strategies designed to broader liberal and neoliberal public safety ‘attract tourists, capital, and a select group initiatives which generate devastating effects of (homo)sexual citizens’ (Kanai, 2014: 1). along race and class lines, especially the sur- Coordinated efforts between municipal and veillance and exclusion of ‘undesirable’ development interests conspire to cleanse queer groups (see Hartal, 2019). Queerspaces of the ‘Queer unwanted’ (Bell Yet, despite anxieties about the exclusiv- and Binnie, 2004) – such as sex clubs and ity and depoliticising effects of gentrified sex workers – in order to make them safe for space, this does not mean that radical forms capital investment (see Hubbard, 2013). of activism are closed down. Ghaziani How might gentrification be used by acti- (2019) uses ‘cultural archipelagos’ to capture vists to form sexual subcultures that resist Queerpsaces as spatially plural and cultu- their marginality and exclusion? As rally complex, in which groups that have Valentine (2003: 417) notes, ‘colonizing and been erased by traditional ‘gaybourhoods’ – occupying space has proved an important lesbians, transgender individuals and people queer tactic’. Gentrified districts form the of colour – can develop new political ima- basis for queer safe spaces, which not only ginaries. Greene (2019) develops this ana- provide physical security for members but logy to illuminate – even within traditional also generate community consciousness, col- gaybourhoods – emergent multiple Queer lective identity construction and localised counterpublics that nurture new inclusive political organising required to foster identities, discourses and practices (see also LGBTQ rights (Castells, 1983; D’Emilio, Brown, 2007; Warner, 2000). 1983; Ghaziani, 2015; Pascar et al., 2018). As safe havens from the violence of everyday life, Queerspaces represent ‘room for Beirut: The postwar city difference’, a utopic possibility that permits How do these debates about gentrification all members to act and look according to apply to cities that endure political their own definitions without feeling disre- spected or unsafe (Pascar et al., 2018). violence? Yet this conceptualisation of Queerspace Cities that endure political violence are those as inherently dissident and progressive, for that have endured destruction to the urban 6 Urban Studies 00(0) fabric – districts have been destroyed, public by sectarian elites so that resources and ser- services and goods are degraded, and ethno- vices are placed under their control and sub- sectarian segregation is pervasive (Akar, ject to their coercive and extractive power. 2018; Fawaz, 2009; Nagle, 2013). A legacy Sectarianised networks are primary provi- of conflict and division means that such cit- ders of up to 60% of basic health services in ies typically lack the ‘modern infrastructure Beirut (Cammett, 2014), while the supply of ideal’ (Graham and Marvin, 2001): centra- electricity and gas, microcredit, even the lised, sociomaterial systems for public goods construction of roads, come under their and services that give political rule a consis- influence (Nucho, 2016). This system of fac- tent material form. Governance is instead tional control is expedited by the postwar expressed through plural and contested hybrid paramilitary-political organisations assemblages of formal and informal appara- who continue to use these networks to tuses, comprising state and non-state actors extend their political and economic power that together discipline and control urban (Akar, 2018; Cammett, 2014). Towards this, populations (Farooqui, 2020). Non-state these groups have created ethnically homo- networks thus assume leading roles in pro- geneous, self-contained and exclusive spaces viding security and policing, healthcare and in Beirut, which has the effect of maintain- other infrastructural goods. ing communal solidarity and thus the loca- The process of neoliberal urban regenera- lised power of sectarian factions (Khalaf, tion in the postwar city illuminates these 2012). issues of plural governance. Postwar recon- It is within these assemblages of sectarian struction often intersects with the ideals of politics, neoliberalism and plural governance the ‘capitalist peace’, an attempt to discipline that postwar reconstruction and gentrifica- cities into pacification through incentivising tion have taken place in Beirut. The most foreign direct investment, gentrification and powerful instrument for this was ‘Solidere’, privatisation strategies (Nagle, 2017, 2018). a private–public hybrid owned by Rafiq This privatisation of peace permits elites and Hariri, then the Lebanese Prime Minister, warlords to capture economic, social and set up to redevelop the downtown district political institutions for the purpose of cor- (Fawaz, 2009; Khalaf, 2012). Solidere expro- ruption and clientelism (Leenders, 2012). priated 120,000 original claimants to prop- These issues are evident in postwar erty rights and privatised 1.8 million square Beirut. Urban reconstruction in the city metres of the downtown and an additional came as the result of the civil war (1975– 608,000 square metres of reclaimed seafront 1990) and caused circa 170,000 deaths. (Leenders, 2012). Despite the claim that the Beirut was one of the main theatres of the reconstruction of the downtown would war. While the conflict was not simply sec- attract multinational companies and provide tarian and featured leading roles for external job opportunities for Lebanese youth, this actors, the war undoubtedly led to an ampli- promise failed to materialise. fication of sectarian divisions across Beirut. Running parallel is a broader, albeit Sectarianism was essentially inbuilt into the uneven rollout of postwar gentrification postwar state through the construction of across the city. While gentrification is power-sharing institutions which rewarded funded by transnational capital and facili- the warlord elites with political and eco- tated by state intervention, including tax nomic power (Cammett, 2014; Khalaf, 2012; breaks for investors and the liberalisation of Leenders, 2012). At the same time, endemic rental contracts, its processes vary within state weaknesses are deliberately cultivated Beirut depending on networks of capital Nagle 7 accumulation, the legacy of sectarian con- Arab Foundation for Freedom and flict, and regional and global circuits of Equality, and Mosaic. It is important to finance (Fawaz, 2009; Krijnen, 2018; note that activist groups do not form a Krijnen and De Beukelaer, 2015). Frenetic coherent and homogenous bloc but include real estate activity has led to gentrification more radical activist networks as well as in many sectors of the city and concomitant professionalised advocacy NGOs. This often waves of population displacement, especially fractured landscape means that differences established working-class communities exist between activists, although intense (Akar, 2018). Postwar gentrification has expressions of solidarity are common in been in two forms: new builds and renova- response to incidents of human rights abuse tion, with a role for creative entrepreneurs experienced by activists and members of the and commercial gentrification (Krijnen and LGBTQ population (Moussawi, 2018, 2020; De Beukelaer, 2015). Sectarian elites and Naber and Zaatari, 2014). It is also impor- networks are often the major beneficiaries of tant to note that some activist groups have gentrification (Leenders, 2012). As investors undergone substantial change in personnel they have accrued vast wealth from gentrifi- and leadership (e.g. Helem) since founda- cation, while the permanent displacement of tion, while others were in existence for a different groups into more homogenous short period (Meem). neighbourhoods has reinforced sectarian divisions and thus the power of sectarian ‘The government is giving us a networks. Postwar urban planning in Beirut plays on fears and differences and permits certain kind of space to exist’ paramilitary groups to organise everyday life Commercial Queerspaces emerged in Beirut via territorial contests for land sales and within districts undergoing gentrification, infrastructure projects (Akar, 2018). including Badaro, Gemmayze, Mar Mikhael Gentrification in Beirut has not only but- and the Hamra. Beirut’s commercial tressed sectarian segregation; it has expe- Queerspaces are largely concentrated in a dited dangerous levels of socioeconomic few places – bars, a yacht club pool and a inequality (Krijnen and De Beukelaer, nightclub. Rather than definable ‘gaybour- 2015), displacement and urban violence hoods’, or gay enclaves, commercial (Akar, 2018). Queerspaces are better described as posi- While gentrification drives negative con- tioned within a spectrum of spaces. Some are sequences for sectarian division, what is its located within ‘Queer friendly neighbour- impact on Queerspace and queer activism? hoods’ (Gorman-Murray and Waitt, 2009), As a growing body of research illuminates, localities that have a heterosexual majority Beirut has become a major hub for Queer in commercial and residential terms but activism (Merabet, 2014; Moussawi, 2018, where LGBTQ businesses and people are 2020; Naber and Zaatari, 2014). While acti- tolerated. Alongside these, there are liminal vism began online, a publicly visible move- Queerspaces: cafes and bars which are not ment emerged in 2004. The first and most expressly ‘gay’ but where LGBTQ people are notable of these is Helem (2008), which is welcomed (Moussawi, 2015, 2018). The the first ‘above-ground LGBT organisation emergence of these commercial Queerspaces in the MENA region’. Since then, further in the early 2000s onwards quickly drew the LGBTQ activist groups and NGOs have attention of Western journalists, penning been formed, including Meem, LebMash, Orientalist accounts of Beirut as ‘the ‘gay 8 Urban Studies 00(0) paradise’ of the Middle East, a safe haven in relations before handing them over to the relation to rest of the MENA region, partic- police (Meaker, 2017). ularly as the authorities appeared indifferent A dual and unequal gay Beirut had arisen. to gay bars (Healy, 2009). On the one side exists a relatively protected At the same time as the emergence of and autonomous sphere of bars and clubs in these spaces, and contradicting the premise districts undergoing gentrification; on the of tolerance, was a campaign of intimidation other are increasingly shrinking ‘undesirable’ by state and non-state actors against ‘unde- Queerspaces subjected to surveillance and sirable’ Queerspaces. These spaces, in con- violence by state and non-state actors. These trast to those noted above, were used by delineations between tolerable and intoler- working-class LGBTQ people, Syrian refu- able spaces correspond to ideas about what gees, sex workers and transpersons, and types of sexual citizens inhabit and use these included ‘gay cinemas’, saunas and clubs in spaces, particularly ‘good and bad sexual the suburbs that had not been gentrified. citizenship’ (Bell and Binnie, 2004). ‘Good’ These acts of harassment were evident in a sexual citizens are seen to belong to the com- number of outrages. The first of these was a munity of value, whose sexual behaviour raid by the internal security forces (ISF) – conforms to traditional gender norms, inti- the police – against a cinema in a working- macy and monogamy, while bad ones are class Armenian neighbourhood accused of constituted as holding sexual acts, beha- screening gay movies. The police arrested 36 viours, identities defined by the state as devi- individuals, who were tortured and subjected ant, thus forfeiting their status as full citizens to forced anal examinations at a police sta- (Bell and Binnie, 2004; Hubbard, 2013). In tion (Moussawi, 2015: 600). The second order to understand these twin forces of tol- police raid against a sauna in Beirut led to erance – good sexual citizens and repression the arrests of 27 people, including several – I turn to the narratives and debates about Syrian refugees employed in the establish- these Queerspaces by LGBTQ activists. ment (LebMash, 2014). A third raid against Zain, a leading LGBTQ activist who had a nightclub in a working-class suburb wit- been a key figure in the growth of the move- nessed the arrests of one transwoman and ment, detailed the development of five men suspected of homosexuality. The Queerspaces within gentrification. He local mayor ordered the raid, accusing the explained that the emergence of what he nightclub of ‘promoting prostitution, drugs described as ‘commercial Queerspaces’ coin- and homosexuality’ (see Moussawi, 2018: cided with a concerted programme of social 183). The arrestees were subjected to severe cleansing of LGBTQ life deemed insalu- beatings by the police before being trans- brious by the state. To an extent this was ported to the mayor’s office. The mayor bound up in the postwar gentrification of defended the use of extrajudicial means as parts of Beirut: necessary to cleanse his district as a militia- The process of the gentrification of Queerspaces man against what he called ‘moral perver- has been the harshest . Beirut today does not sions’ (Rizk and Makarem, 2015). This have any non-commercial Queerspaces, which it overlapping authority – between state and hadbefore.TheydidthisintheHamrawiththe non-state actors – is further exposed in closing down of the cinemas, the hammams reports that Hezbollah, the hybrid political [saunas] were closed down.1 party/paramilitary group, have ‘arrested’ men in their districts in the suburbs sus- While ‘undesirable’ Queerspaces were being pected of being involved in same-sex erased, activists considered why commercial Nagle 9

Queerspaces appear to be tolerated in a anything in Lebanon, it’s in its own interests homophobic state where same sex relations to do so’.3 are criminalised and individuals are arrested Social class functions as a key determinant and tortured. Fadi, an independent activist, regarding why some spaces could claim some argued that gentrified Queerspaces were autonomy. On this, Moussawi (2018: 184) incorporated into the logic of the sectarian explains that ‘having access to gay-friendly and neoliberal state. He described how there spaces and LGBTQ networks in Beirut appears to be a tacit consent for the exis- requires having economic, cultural, and social tence of a certain type of LGBTQ popula- capital’. These spaces, within gentrified dis- tion and identity in Beirut, which gives the tricts, are exclusivist, reserved for affluent indi- appearance of freedom to some privileged viduals, especially since the entrance fee to LGBTQ people: some clubs is prohibitively high. Activists affirm the saliency of social class: ‘These clubs The government is giving us a certain kind of were extremely exclusive; they would not let space to exist. As long as it’s not known to be anybody in’.4 A leading Helem activist asked: gay, there’s no illegal behaviour going on inside, there is no sex and there are no drugs, Is this freedom accessible to everyone? you can go there [bars and clubs]. But outside Definitely not. To enjoy this freedom, you don’t ask for your rights. You find that most need to be able to afford it. LGBT individuals of the community think they are living their and even heterosexual women from lower eco- freedom, but they are not. They are just living 2 nomical classes do not have the luxury to go in this bubble. to bars every day. (Azzi, 2011)

Zain argued that the state was even involved Individuals with high levels of economic, in ‘homo-entrepreneurialism’ (Kanai, 2014) – symbolic and social capital (Bourdieu, 2004) the promotion of districts and neighbour- are afforded a degree of immunity from per- hoods as gay-friendly for tourism. He secution in the sectarian system from state pointed out that the International Lesbian and non-state forces. Affluence endows you and Gay Travel Association held a sympo- with the vital commodity of wasta: connec- sium in Beirut in 2009, which was supported tions to key people in authority who are able by Lebanon’s Ministry of Tourism, to to leverage their power to overcome formal encourage gay tourism to Beirut (see also rules. LGBTQ individuals who possess high Whitaker, 2011). This absorption into the amounts of wasta can use this, in some cir- state is further exposed, according to some cumstances, to evade arbitrary detention, activists, by examples of some bars and harassment and abuse at checkpoints (see nightclubs located within the fiefdoms of Naber and Zaatari, 2014: 103–104). Mona, a militias which are required to pay ‘protec- human rights worker and activist, concluded tion’ to these groups. Joey, a Helem activist, that privilege: explained that the militias often provide ‘security’ on the doors. On the one occasion plays out in every single aspect of LGBTQ peo- that the bar was raided, a writer noted that it ple’s lives: class, power, family connections and was carried out ‘in order to gather the club wasta in a country like this goes a really long owner’s bribes that were perhaps late that way to the extent that they can even transcend month’ (X, 2017). For these reasons, Zain some of the violence and the discrimination argued that ‘The sectarian system can absorb that any other person might experience.5 10 Urban Studies 00(0)

For these reasons, Zain argued, commercial processes of inclusion and exclusion. Zain Queerspaces protect privileged individuals noted that there is a ‘fear of transgressing while simultaneously obscuring ongoing gender norms within the gay community’. incidents of oppression for marginalised He noted that ‘the policing in this area groups: ‘It is fine if you are gay in a con- focuses on clean up: they focus on transgen- trolled middle-class environment, like a ders and gay men don’t matter’.8 Ali, a middle-class bar, but it is not fine if you are young activist, pointed out that many men outside of these spaces because you will not are wary of being seen as ‘effeminate’: be protected’. Zain continued: those are arrested, such as the men arrested at the If you are masculine, you are likely to be ‘gay’ cinemas and saunas (noted above), exonerated by the state of any sexual act. were the ‘lower class that don’t find space in Homophobia is expressed more on a gendered other LGBT spaces that are becoming too level. It is not really a fear of sexual relations; expensive for them; it’s always the poor, it is more a fear of breaking a gender role and this is where the state freaks out.9 lower social economic classes that are perse- cuted’.6 Another activist noted that this idea Certainly, there is sufficient evidence to of state accepting while simultaneously deni- highlight how the state is particularly cen- grating certain renditions of sexuality was sorious of transpersons, and individuals confirmed in their interactions with a police whose appearances do not correspond to representative, who distinguished between normative gender forms are targeted. In ‘the respectable gays who are from good 2018, of 35 arrests and trials conducted families and go to respectable places, and under the aegis of Article 534, 27 – almost the rabble who don’t go to such places and 80% – of these were transwomen (Human who might have sex in the street and are Rights Watch, 2019). poor’ (see Benoist, 2015). While particular formations of class provide some amount of protection for individ- ‘Why do you want to go and play uals, this intersects with gender, masculinity and ethnicity. Access to ‘gay friendly’ spaces with the hornets’ nest?’ required performances of normative femi- The existence of bars and clubs in Beirut ninities and masculinities, in addition to eco- unmolested by the state stimulates debate nomic, social and cultural capital among activists about how they can be har- (Moussawi, 2020). Hakim, a leading activist, nessed for rights. For one group of activists illuminated the dynamics of privilege: these spaces require protection as they were owned by LGBTQ individuals and repre- The particular layout of this country means it sented a focal point for community-building is possible if you have access to resources and and activism. Habib, a former manager of contacts to exist as a gay person in Lebanon one of the bars and an activist, explained the and to be fine. You have got your gay bars; the police don’t arrest you, they arrest Syrian bars and clubs provided a safe haven for the refugees, transpeople, sex workers and drug community and a basis for activism to crys- users, the invisible part of the country that we tallise: ‘The gay establishments were doing work for.7 their best to protect the people. They were providing safe spaces for people and they Norms and performances related to gender were connected to society’.10 Ali confirmed and masculinity are reinforced through this: ‘there is a small space, a safe haven, Nagle 11 and you have war all around you’.11 Hakim who thought that there were privileges from recognised the importance of ‘real’ rather having such spaces and thought that if we start than ‘virtual spaces’ in developing a move- opposing the state the state might hit you. ment. He explained that ‘In order for there And you always have to deal with this type of to be rights there has to be a community’. balance: confronting injustice could lead to a backlash.14 Yet he asked: ‘if the answer is to create a community, how does one consciously do In a forceful critique, Lara, an independent that?’. While the commercial Queerspaces activist, viewed the gentrified spaces as, wit- represented something of a ‘gay ghetto’ in tingly or not, complicit with the social Beirut that are ‘incredibly expensive, exclu- cleansing of ‘undesirable’ Queerspaces. It sive and hyperconservative’, Hakim realised was not only that commercial Queerspaces that they have the potential to provide the were exclusivist in relation to class; they also basis for community building in the same marginalised expressions of sexuality that way that ‘gaybourhoods’ had elsewhere: were non-normative. This process of social cleansing, argued Lara, is done to make The good thing about those enclaves in the United States, in Europe and wherever, is that LGBTQ people tolerable for the state: you can have a lot of gay people move into a neighbourhood. Some people open up a bar- This whole idea of cleaning up Queerspaces to ber shop, some people open up a supermarket, be safe and then the state will say, ‘oh, ok, some open whatever, and all of a sudden you now we accept you’. A bar can agree to be gay have a community that satisfies the needs more friendly and have all gay staff, but they are or less.12 not supposed to act gay. If they don’t look the typical gay man look, they don’t get into the Rather than stimulate a rights movement, bars. The problem is that these middle class gay men keep their privileges and to keep its for a number of activists the commercial semblance of liberalism, they have to do this: Queerspaces represented the depoliticisation they have to clean out the space to be accepted of activism. Zain challenged the idea that and tolerated by the state. Some people prefer these spaces were safe and impervious to to protect this space at any costs, because this violence. He had once been severely sub- is our only space, rather than look to extend jected to what he called a ‘gay bashing’ by this freedom.15 militiamen in the Hamra, an area that has gay bars and is considered a cosmopolitan The comparative freedom for LGBTQ bars part of the city. Yet, as Zain asked, ‘how and clubs provided a problem for activists. can you be safe in an unsafe environment?’. Rather than provide a base for the emer- Recounting his beating at the hands of ‘mili- gence of an LGBTQ community and a social tiamen’, Zain explained that ‘the state forces movement, these private and exclusivist itself through sect militias. This is the second spaces acted as a disincentive to many sexual layer of state enforcement, and what they do minorities on becoming involved in public is they force whatever morality they get out activism. In particular, gender-normative, of the law’.13 middle-class and wealthy cis-males (see also Zain recounted his resistance to the com- Moussawi, 2018), were able to find a space mercialisation process on the basis that it of autonomy that they wanted to protect. regressed rather than advanced activism: Hakim explained:

We were extremely critical of the commerciali- this country has created quite ironically a very zation going on. There were moneyed people difficult position for gay rights to advance 12 Urban Studies 00(0)

because of the relative comfort that you have solidarity. It recognises how dominant struc- here. If you ask a gay man here, they would tures of power are not only profoundly com- say, ‘why do I want go down and protest and plex but reproduce multiple forms of attract attention to what is a perfectly comfor- inequality which require intersecting strug- table and good situation that I have? I have gles forging alliances across the most vulner- the bars and the clubs that I need. I have the able members of communities. Returning to relative tolerance that I need. Why do you want to go and play with the hornets’ nest?’.16 Beirut, I want to explore the possibility of radical Queerspaces both inside and outside of gentrification space. Many activists have developed radical Queer futurity: ‘No homophobia, forms of political agency outside of commer- racism, sexism, classism’ cial Queerspaces. A key part of this activism is to oppose the sectarian system. Dina, an These criticisms of commercial Queerspaces independent activist, emphasised the impor- mirror wider anxieties regarding how queer tance of ‘avoiding collusion with the ruling movements are subsumed into dominant cul- elite and calling for the end of political sec- tural and political-economic systems. Nast tarianism in protests and other sites of acti- (2002: 874), notably, critiques activism that vism’.17 Since, as Naber and Zaatari (2014) reaffirms ‘pre-existing racialised and politi- note, sectarianism is founded on asymmetri- cally and economically conservative pro- cal systems of gender, class, race, ethnicity cesses of profit-accumulation’. Such activism and sexuality, activism requires an intersec- risks dividing LGBTQ communities into tional approach that refuses to impose false hierarchies of belonging, with transpeople, binaries or hierarchies on a complex social queers of colour, queer sex workers deemed reality. Such intersectional activism corre- as an impediment the progress of rights sponds to what Mouffe (2014) calls ‘a chain (Doan, 2007; Oswin, 2005). In response to of equivalence’: discreet political platforms such critiques, Brown (2007) has called for aiming for a transformation of society come research on Queerspaces that provide alter- together, often momentarily, as actors that natives to the commercial gay scene. Brown are equivalently disadvantaged by existing alerts us to ‘queer autonomous space’ or power relations. These movements, made up even ‘mutinous eruptions’, in which mem- of allied groups seeking broad transforma- bers are avowedly anti-assimilationist and tion of existing power relations, retain their inclusive. These spaces and networks are different claims while coordinating around Queer because members do not see sexual an agenda of equivalence. As Purcell (2009) identities as fixed and immutable; instead, argues, ‘equivalent’ in this case does not Queer is a statement of difference and oppo- mean identical; actors are not disadvantaged sition to mainstream society (gay or in precisely the same way. The groups in the straight), even as it recognises that this dis- chain each have their own distinct relation tance is always incomplete. It is a vision con- to the existing hegemony, and each group’s necting with what Mun˜oz (2019) calls ‘Queer interests are irreducible to the others. futurity’: a utopian project entailing the con- Krystal, an independent activist, explained struction of political imaginaries designed to how contesting sectarianism involves under- dismantle systemic injustices while also illu- standing its intersectional dimensions, which minating alternative visions of community in turn necessitate chains of equivalence in based on interdependency, vulnerability and forms of mobilisation: Nagle 13

If you want to look at the sectarian system, you have to look at it from an intersectional perspective. You have to look at in terms of how it effects your social class, your economic class, your race, your ability, your sexuality and if you look at that you will see how the layers are created.18

This intersectional activism is witnessed in protests against the negative consequences of Lebanon’s postwar sectarian politics, particularly corruption, clientelism and a failing state. Two major waves of contention – ‘You Stink’, in 2015, and the 2019 ‘Thawra’ (‘Uprising’) protests – brought hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from all sections of the population together to protest against the state’s sectarian elites. LGBTQ activists linked and articulated their claims within these protests, which encompass calls for political accountability and public services. Protesters fostered alliances between a vari- ety of issues and groups marginalised by the Figure 1. Wall mural in downtown Beirut, sectarian system. In a celebrated piece of Lebanon, November 2019. graffiti in Beirut’s downtown area these lin- Source: Photograph by author. kages between some of these issues were illuminated: ‘No Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, the protest narrative. Lara explained: ‘Queer Classism’. rights, anti-racist organizing, refugee orga- Through applying an intersectional per- nizing, coalition work: It all started to ‘‘come spective to Lebanon’s sectarian system, acti- out’’. Many of these activists’ embraced vists exposed its multiple inequalities. LGBTQ activism and they were at the fron- 20 Struggles against racism, for class-based eco- tlines of the protests’. Activists led chants nomic redistribution, gender equality and during protests: ‘We want to overthrow rights for LGBTQ people, refugees and homophobia’ and ‘transphobia, classism, migrant workers provide battle lines where it racism all must go’. Significantly, groups is possible to challenge the grammar of and individuals that have been cleansed exclusion. It is in the Thawra protests in late from Queerspaces – working-class people, 2019 that activists brought these intersec- refugees and transpersons – were able to tional approaches to the forefront. Lara, a gain agency within the space of the Thawra key activist involved in the Thawra, protests. Activists involved in the protests explained: ‘We pushed for a discourse that’s viewed these spaces of contention as infused intersectional: We curated intersectional with Queerness and as Queerspaces. Queer, chants that brought together non-normative in this sense, is not merely a subject position sexualities, refugees and domestic workers’ of sexual identity; it is defined in terms of rights’.19 opposition to sectarian division and solidar- LGBTQ activists were able to not only ity with all those who are excluded from find space within these alliances, but shaped rights. An earlier pamphlet explained that 14 Urban Studies 00(0)

‘Queers choose to be different from this different stories that contradict hegemonic social system and the racism and exploita- narratives (Figure 1). tion it represents, simply because we are ‘‘different’’ in a society ruled by sectarianism, sexism, classism, racism, and discrimination’ Conclusion: ‘Breaking the wall’ (Helem, 2010). The potentialities of gentrification to pro- As part of a broad alliance of activists duce Queerspaces for LGBTQ activism that span a range of groups in Lebanon, forms a rich research corpus within urban LGBTQ activists can negotiate their visibi- studies. Scholars debate whether such spaces lity in public space. Activists have captured nourish progressive forms of solidarity, if this as being ‘ambiguously visible’, a posi- they reduce political projects to neoliberal tion that ‘rejects the binary between the clo- modes of sexual assimilation and homonor- set and coming out’ (Meem, 2010). In mativity, or are even multivalent and practical terms ‘ambiguously visible’ meant messy repositories of both. I have sought to that activists creatively and spontaneously extend these debates to cities that have combine different approaches to being seen endured political violence and where and concealed. LGBTQ activists are part of LGBTQ people are harassed and crimina- protests against the sectarian system but lised. Beirut is an important case study to they are not necessarily reducing their acti- examine these issues in the context of the vism to LGBTQ rights nor are they easily rampant but uneven gentrification, dispos- identifiable for the security forces, since session, social cleansing and sectarian segre- elites have framed the Thawra as a ‘sodomy gation that has characterised the postwar revolution’. city. A dual Beirut has emerged within This tactic of ‘ambiguously visible’ has assemblages of sectarian power, sexual citi- been exercised by activists through their zenship and political economy. Commercial involvement in the You Stink and Thawra Queerspaces are tacitly incorporated into demonstrations. These actions focused on the neoliberal and sectarian state, while at the downtown district of Beirut, which has the same time the ‘Queer unwanted’ – spaces undergone extensive gentrification in the and people deemed transgressive to the postwar era, accompanied by intense dispos- moral order – are violently erased. These session and social cleansing. These move- dual spaces expose the limits on life for ments represent a ‘space of appearance’, a queer communities. These binaries between sphere of political action where citizens coa- tolerable and intolerable Queerspaces are lesce to produce agency, power and collec- contingent and the state reserves the right to tive action. In the downtown district, withdraw acceptance at any point. To help LGBTQ activists painted graffiti and understand these processes, I unveiled the murals to announce their ambiguous visibi- rich testimonies and critical debates articu- lity and intersectional politics: ‘No To lated by LGBTQ activists in Beirut. Homophobia’, ‘Domestic Migrant Rights’, Activists in Beirut, as in cities elsewhere ‘Queers For Marx’, ‘Lesbians Against marked by gentrification of Queerspaces, Homophobia’, ‘Strike Like A Dyke’ and worry about its exclusionary effects and its ‘Black Poor Gay Trans’. By becoming regressive impact on the flourishing of politi- momentarily visible in the gentrified space cal projects required to sustain rights. Yet, of the downtown district, activists engage in more importantly, in this article I note the attempts to multiply the readings of the city: multifaceted nature of inclusion/exclusion in Nagle 15 the postwar city and in gentrification. It ORCID iD shows how the dynamics of Queerspace oper- John Nagle https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8836- ate for populations that are criminalised and 9942 in which sexuality intersects with class, gender, sect and ethnicity to ensure that Queer Notes life is determined within the space of the plural sovereignties inhabited by hybrid state/ 1. Interview with former Helem activist, Beirut June 2014. non-state actors. Yet, waves of national pro- 2. Interview with LGBTQ activist, Dekwaneh test in Lebanon against the sectarian state September 2019. have not only given new spaces for radical 3. Interview with former Helem activist, Beirut LGBTQ actors; these activists are leading June 2014. agents of protest, forming intersectional 4. Interview with independent LGBTQ activist, ‘chains of equivalence’ between marginalised Beirut July 2015. groups, creating new, though transient, 5. Interview with human rights worker and Queerspaces and Queer counterpublics that LGBTQ activist, Beirut September 2019. engender Queer futurity. This activism has 6. Interview with former Helem activist, Beirut June 2014. reinserted itself into gentrified spaces that 7. Interview with senior Helem activist, Beirut have hitherto sought to cleanse the ‘undesir- July 2015. able’. It is in these spaces where the hegemony 8. Interview with senior Helem activist, Beirut of the system is Queered and questioned. As July 2015. Sara explains: ‘Our vision is to chip at the sys- 9. Interview with independent LGBTQ activist, tem so that one day it all crumbles. This is Beirut October 2017. our aim. Breaking the wall through counter- 10. Interview with senior Helem activist, narratives’.21 January 2018. 11. Interview with independent LGBTQ activist, September 2019. Acknowledgements 12. Interview with senior Helem activist, June 2014. The author would like to thank the anonymous 13. Interview with senior Helem activist, Beirut reviewers for their kind and constructive com- July 2015. ments to strengthen this article. The author is also 14. Interview with senior Helem activist, Beirut grateful for the advice and suggestions provided July 2015. by Bernie Hayes, Tamirace Fakhoury, Mary- 15. Interview with independent LGBTQ activist, Alice Clancy and Giulia Carabelli. Any errors, Beirut January 2018. however, are the responsibility of the author. 16. Interview with senior Helem activist, Beirut June 2014. 17. Interview with independent LGBTQ activist, Declaration of conflicting interests Beirut March 2020. The author declared no potential conflicts of 18. Interview with independent LGBTQ activist, interest with respect to the research, authorship, Beirut October 2017. and/or publication of this article. 19. Interview with independent LGBTQ activist, Beirut February 2020. 20. Interview with independent LGBTQ activist, Funding Beirut February 2020. The author received no financial support for the 21. Interview with independent LGBTQ activist, research, authorship, and/or publication of this Beirut February 2020. article. 16 Urban Studies 00(0)

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