This book provides a comprehensive analysis of LGBTQ+ centers and organizations in urban areas, a phenomenon that began in North American and Western European cities four decades ago and now flourishes around the world.
It analyzes two different LGBTQ+ organizations in Israel: the Jerusalem Open House and the Tel Aviv LGBTQ Center. It traces their different histories, sociocultural and geographical locations, and different social relations. Both have become essential players in Israeli LGBTQ+ activism and urban hubs for the LGBTQ+ community. The book provides a case study of an understudied aspect of LGBTQ+ community life from a region outside North America and Europe, offering a comprehensive analysis that foregrounds different types of spaces, traces movements across cities, and employs varied analytical approaches to examine a significant location in global LGBTQ+ politics. The book explores the spatial activism produced in these spaces, the gendered power relations structured within them, the social groups they engage and serve, the political organizations that have emerged there, and their role as catalysts for broader social movements. It also addresses the planning processes and local political negotiations involved in their establishment. Through this lens, the book highlights current debates surrounding this phenomenon, including local and national tensions, homonationalism and pinkwashing, trauma and social movements, and the neoliberal conditions framing both centers.
This book will be of interest to students of geography, sociology, anthropology, urban studies, planning, tourism studies, cultural studies, gender studies, and LGBTQ+ studies.