discussion of Bell et al., 1994, above), but overall
we see them as broadening and enriching activist
scholarship.
We have also tried to showcase the ways in
which, as a consequence of these latest develop-
ments, a variety of spaces have already begun to be
queered, as well as the limits of this queering
project. From the closet to the body, to the city, to
the nation and to the globe, new queer cultural geo-
graphies show us that a variety of subjectivities are
performed, resisted, disciplined and oppressed not
simply in but throughspace. However awkward
and choppy our scale-fixing may be (admittedly,
queers inhabit bodies and the globe simultane-
ously!), our intention has been to demonstrate the
truly impressive myriad locations on the globe,
debates within the academy, and political issues in
‘the real world’ in which queer issues, experiences
andgeographies are implicated.
As a perpetual deconstructive process, the pro-
ject of queering (cultural) geography will never
be finished (nor should it be). In our view this
openness makes it one of the most exciting and
intellectually promising areas of enquiry in the
entire discipline. Consequently, we closed the
chapter with some of our own suggestions for
queer cultural geographies we’d like to see in the
future, along with some cautionary comments
about potential dangers. The list is by no means
complete or commanding, but rather is illustrative
of where we have been, where we are and where
we mightgo. No doubt even more fascinating
geographies, whose ‘queerness’ exceeds far
beyond our current imaginations, have yet to be
written by current students of cultural geography!NOTES1 Questions like: are sexualities learned behaviors,
expressions of desire, genetic predispositions, some
combination of these, or something else?
2 Questions like: are sexual identities ascribed, claimed
or socially constructed?
3 Questions like: whom do we count as ‘gay’, ‘straight’
or ‘bi’, anyway; how do we know these subjectivities;
and how do we even know which categories to use?
4 Questions like: how do we sample; which case studies
are apposite; when are hermeneutics more appro-
priate? See Brown (1995) and England (1994) for
examples.
5 Especially in light of the perceived failures of ‘scientific’
liberalism – e.g. Keynesian economics – and the rise of
neoconservative ideologies and social policies.
6 We refer here to calls for the ‘unlearning’ of oppres-
sive behavior patterns and thought processes that are
so ingrained as to be ‘second nature’ (as in John
Singleton’s 1995 film on race, gender and sexual
politics on a university campus titled Higher Learning).7 Geographers actually lag in this regard; George
Mosse (1988), a historian, and Andrew Parker
(1992), a literary critic, began exploring this issue
much earlier.
8 These can be exploited by quite sinister forces with
no regard whatsoever for ethics, values or social
justice (Knopp, 1995).
9 Perhaps in part because of a long history in western
societies of women and gay men being coded as bear-
ers of culture and protectors of aesthetic values
(Betsky, 1997; Ingram, 1993).
10 The range is impressive: from erotica, pornography
and prostitution to online dating services, chat rooms,
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