Queer-What-You-Can: Queer community organizing in a gentrifying East Vancouver

Queer studies and Urban studies rarely intersect, leaving an entire urban demographic understudied and under-represented in our conceptualizations of the city. Despite the lack of research or attention paid in particular to young queer adults in urban settings, these groups and individuals nevertheless shape our cities through their social organizing and subculture participation. Cities, in turn, shape these groups and individuals as well, as social organizing and sub-culture participation is shaped by forces like gentrification, changing social climates, and urban geographies. Using semi-structured interviews with queer community organizers, I seek to understand the question: What challenges do queer young adults face when organizing community in an increasingly unaffordable and gentrified Vancouver? How do they meet those challenges? These interviews provide insight and context to how queerness shapes global cosmopolitan cities amidst increasing social and economic barriers which impact these place-based groups and identities.