Queer Spatial Recognition in Kuwait

Abstract

In this research, I am concerned with giving an account of queer spaces that are formed through social relations and have fostered a form of “spatial recognition” and inhabitation. Rather than positioning these spaces as resistant, I want to situate them through an analysis that takes into account the political economy of Kuwait and the classed apparatus of citizenship that structures mechanisms of social control and informs social dynamics between citizens and non-citizens. Through giving this account, my aim is to think about recognition beyond legal frameworks that are attached to notions of visibility and “coming out.”