The whiteness of ‘safe’ spaces: Developing a conceptual framework to critically examine the well-being of racialized 2SLGBTQ+ people within 2SLGBTQ+ leisure spaces

Abstract

2SLGBTQ+ leisure spaces (e.g., 2SLGBTQ+ community centres and recreation groups) offer opportunities to form identities and augment 2SLGBTQ+ people’s overall well-being. These spaces are considered ‘safe’ for 2SLGBTQ+ people to escape heterosexism, while being able to openly express themselves and develop community. However, these might be sites of discrimination for 2SLGBTQ+ people with other minoritized identities (e.g., racialized people), given the whiteness of these spaces. Racialized 2SLGBTQ+ individuals’ experiences of discrimination, generally and within 2SLGBTQ+ leisure spaces, can threaten their well-being, thus highlighting the value of 2SLGBTQ+ spaces, but how do racialized 2SLGBTQ+ people negotiate these often-problematic spaces? This paper presents a conceptual framework that bridges theories and research across social work and leisure studies. The conceptual framework extends the minority stress theory with theories of intersectionality, whiteness, and resilience using a socioecological lens to interrogate experiences and outcomes along multiple dimensions of social identities created by racism and other oppressive systems (e.g., sexism, cisgenderism, classism, ableism) within queer leisure spaces. This paper also describes how the framework can be implemented as an analytic tool and can facilitate investigations of systems of oppression and resilience within queer leisure spaces from the perspective of racialized 2SLGBTQ+ people through critical examination of power relations, relationality, complexity, social justice, and whiteness. Understanding how discrimination occurs and the multi-level resilience-promoting factors that exist in 2SLGBTQ+ leisure spaces will provide an avenue to address the effects of discrimination and foster racialized 2SLGBTQ+ people’s social well-being and inclusion.