[Note: This course number will be changed to PLAN 573, but for spring 2021 it is currently being scheduled as PLAN 590.001]
Since the end of the Second World War, if not before, more and more cities of the United States have come to feature spaces identified by members of LGBTQ communities and their heterosexual, cis-gendered counterparts as gay, lesbian, or queer. These have included intimate networks of homes, public spaces of all sizes, skid rows, commercial districts, residential urban neighborhoods, suburbs, small towns, some rural areas, and perhaps even entire cities. LGBTQ-identified spaces have been key in the development of LGBTQ identity: they provide sites for socializing and socialization, organization, self-affirmation and expression, visibility, and for many even political empowerment and the accumulation of material wealth. They have also provided targets for violence, exploitation, and state suppression, and been exclusive of many LGBTQ-identifying people because of their racial, class, sexual, or gender identity. This class introduces students to the social, political, and economic life of LGBTQ spaces in the United States, and asks students to consider their importance and the merits of planning for their improvement and/or conservation.
Meets on Fridays, from January 19th until March 12th. No pre-requisites, open to undergraduate and graduate students.