Queer Homes in a Non-Queer World

Abstract

Focusing on crafting queer spaces for radical pedagogies, Katie Goldstein explores the proliferation of queer communal homes in Brooklyn, New York, as a physical manifestation of the queer landscape. New York City has been a queer home for decades (known throughout the USA as LGBQ homes). In Brooklyn, the queer home trend is growing as the queer community puts down roots, solidifying the sense of community and laying the groundwork for political organizing to fuel greater queer participation in urban space. A founder and resident of a queer collective house in Brooklyn and a professional housing organizer, Goldstein draws on interviews with queer folks who live in and have helped to create queer homes. She also charts the genesis of QUORUM: Queers Organizing for Radical Unity and Mobilization as it relates to building and unifying queer community. Noting that queer homes are tools of protection for the queer community, Goldstein explores the possibilities, manifestations, and limits of queer collective houses in Brooklyn.