Frames of Queer Safe Spaces in Last Gender

Last Gender is a series of short stories revolving around the lives of multiple queer characters of varying identities and sexualities. The characters converge and congregate in a single place, known as Bar California, and as such, this space becomes a queer space. 1/13

Hartal states that “This frame of safety reveals that closing a space and setting up a guard does not necessarily make the space safer. Even though the public space of Jerusalem is perceived as unsafe for LGBT individuals, the guarded organizational space of the JOH produces a duality, in that what is safe for some might inadvertently induce unsafety for others.” 5/13

Anonymity describes a right to privacy. This can be seen reflected in the rules of Bar California: Recording devices of any kind are prohibited. This frame does form some contradiction with the prior one, but the purpose of Hartal’s analysis is to allow for the simultaneous discussion of multiple perspectives, regardless of their cohesion. 6/13

Hartal further states “the anonymity frame encompasses constructing a space where no questions are asked. Thus, the reasoning behind this frame of safe space is based on the right to privacy, and is related to affects like fear (of stigma) and shame. These affects, unlike the fear of violence, do not call for fortification but instead require the creation of obscurity and a space of invisibility.” 7/13

Being a queer bar, Bar California is by construction a very inclusive space, with many accommodations for queer people who can’t live as freely outside the bar. The bar is not exclusively a queer space, however, and as such this inclusion extends to non-queer patrons as well. 8/13

Separation for distinct identities is more visible throughout the narrative structure of Last Gender than it is in the bar itself. Each story in Last Gender is centred around a character’s sexual and gender identities, and the complexities emerging from social interactions. 9/13

In this manner, the story itself creates a space for each protagonist to explore or establish their identity disjointedly from the other characters, even though the events take place in the same physical location. 10/13

While control, as a frame, was viewed as the ability to construct and maintain clear boundaries (both social and physical) within the given space, it can also be viewed as the ability to manipulate and change a space to suit the comforts and desires of those within it. 11/13

This frame can be seen especially in the way that the bar reconstructs itself (with the help of the patrons) for a wedding. As a space for queer people, Bar California has the dexterity and control to accommodate its patrons in ways which make them more than just comfortable. 12/13

As Last Gender is a series of short stories revolving around queer characters, the primary space inhabited by these characters becomes a queer space, and through their interactions, we can see how their behaviour reflects the safety Bar California provides them. 13/13