The homonormalisation of white heterosexual leisure spaces in Bloemfontein, South Africa

The paper comprises a response to the overwhelming lack of geographical research into South African gay male leisure space development and augments the first detailed analyses of white gay leisure space development in this country by redirecting the geographic focus to a smaller provincial city. The image of gay leisure space that emerges in Bloemfontein is different from those identified and described in large metropolitan complexes. What emerges in this city is the development of gay-coded spaces in which heterosexual leisure spaces are queered, but not with the intent or outcome of generating exclusively gay spaces. Homonormalised spaces are created. It is contended that much of the current debates approach the so-called homonormalistion of gay leisure space from an unhelpful “gay/queer-disempowered” perspective which is inadequate to explain the development of a range of leisure spaces certain gay/queer cohorts created and/or seek out. It is suggested that homonormalised spaces are far more than heteronormativity infiltrating the gay (leisure) world through a range of consumption-led processes/events, or gay male capitulation to such normative hegemonies. It is argued that “homonormalisation” should be understood more reflexively.