Queer Itineraries: Exploring the Geography of Gay Paris

This chapter traces the history and evolution of public spaces and localities that queer populations frequented during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By exploring the geography of queer Paris, it shows not only where queer populations could gather, but how they used each space to confront normative sexualities. The chapter reconstructs this geography by drawing from archival works like letters to the Prefect of Police and criminal ledgers to help understand what areas were most surveilled for acts labelled “public indecency.” Additionally, it also examines how certain French political ideologies imposed an erasure of queer identity which kept these queer geographies clandestine ultimately leading to a confrontation between Frenchness and queer identitarian politics.