Papers by Chandra Laborde
Journal of Lesbian Studies, 2023
At the intersection of feminism and ecology, ecofeminism has recognized that the liberation of al... more At the intersection of feminism and ecology, ecofeminism has recognized that the liberation of all women from patriarchal oppressive structures will not be fully effected without the liberation of nature. This bond between women and nature is not new, it has been experienced in different times, cultures, and geographies, and revisited during second-wave feminism in the West. Although sometimes this connection was essentialist, for some lesbians the identification with the land was not biological but spiritual, romantic, and erotic. The understanding of the planet's identity shifted from "Mother Earth" to becoming a sister, a lover, the Goddess. This passion for the more-than-human aligns with contemporary discourses explored in queer and trans ecology, ecosexuality, and new materialism, where the agency of nature goes one step further into the lesbian embrace.
Articles by Chandra Laborde
Transgender Studies Quarterly, 2024
This article responds to Susan Stryker's call to envision a future of justice for the building at... more This article responds to Susan Stryker's call to envision a future of justice for the building at the crossroads of Turk and Taylor Streets—the historic site of the Compton's Cafeteria Riot of 1966, now owned and operated by a private prison corporation. Drawing from Stryker's “transexual poetics,” which explores the transformative potential of trans bodies; Eva Hayward's concept of “transposition,” highlighting the intra-creation between trans bodies and the urban environment; and Lucas Crawford's “transgender poetics of architecture,” which examines the relationship between trans bodies and the aesthetics of public structures, this work proposes to go beyond architectural aesthetics to address social justice and resist the capitalist co-optation of queer and trans identities. Employing a “transecological poetics of reterritorialization,” it proposes a strategy to resist the erasure of cultural formations and social meaning through gentrification. Drawing from Deleuze and Guattari's concept of “reterritorialization”—the reconstruction of those formations—it envisions a transversal communication to enable cross-movement and multispecies coalitions. The article analyzes the creation of the Transgender District as a site where trans liberation has been instrumentalized to “beautify” and create “safe spaces” for the trans “community,” while broadening the divide between groups seeking assimilation and more radical factions that advocate for police abolition and challenge capitalism. Two contrasting sites illustrate the crossroads of possible directions for the future of the building: the Eagle Plaza in the Leather Cultural District, exemplifying the risks of co-opting queer identities for profit, and the Tenderloin National Forest, an alley transformed into a forest, embodying the possibilities of a transecological poetics of reterritorialization. This latter example demonstrates how transmuted structures of sociality extend into the built environment, offering to reimagine Compton's as a utopian space, a microcosm with potential for trans-scalar planetary transition.
you are here: the journal of creative geography, 2022
Books by Chandra Laborde
The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics, Volume II Ecology, Social Participation and Marginalities, 2024
This chapter examines spatial politics through the lens of queer ecology. Scholars in environment... more This chapter examines spatial politics through the lens of queer ecology. Scholars in environmental studies have used the term queer ecology in the last 20 years to question binary, heterosexist conceptualizations of what is considered natural. While that work aims to highlight activist connections between LGBTQ movements and environmental justice, research about the built environment rarely engages with non-binary thinking. We extend queer ecological critique to architectural discourse to highlight the capacity of embodied queer identities to shape non-normative spaces beyond binaries such as nature/culture, rural/urban and waste/purity, among others. After a brief review of the rise of technical rationality in the 20th Century, the chapter examines several case studies that form a constellation of queer ecological spaces. We trace ideas that animate current debates in the establishment of a rural community in California in the late 1950s to then explore how particular debates shaped the organization, aesthetics and queer histories of examples that include the WomanShare collective, Radical Faerie sanctuaries, and New York’s High Line. We conclude by speculating on the meaning of unbuilding, a notion derived from queer and transgender critique, that calls for a radical reconceptualization of architecture’s priorities.
Book Reviews by Chandra Laborde
Gender, Place & Culture, 2024
At the intersection of queer theory and urban studies, social geographer DamonScott’s long-awaite... more At the intersection of queer theory and urban studies, social geographer DamonScott’s long-awaited spatial analysis of the San Francisco waterfront’s queer land andits demise has finally been published, renewing scholarly interest in the social dynam-ics and sexual politics in post-war American urban planning. Building on thesocio-political context of the Lavender and Red Scare in the 1950s –when homosex-uals were expelled from merchant marine and naval forces– The City Aroused exploreshow the San Francisco waterfront became a containment zone for a thriving queernightlife. Scott argues that this gay cruising strip was framed as a vice district bypro-growth advocates such as business leaders and state officials who labeled it a‘blighted’ area to drive down the cost of land for an urban renewal project and a newfreeway network called the Golden Gateway. This project was supported by city plan-ners eager to ‘modernize’ San Francisco as the financial center of an expanding met-ropolitan area. The queer bar culture responded to the cracking down, bar raids,street sweeps, and liquor suspensions, through collective organizing, creating politicalnetworks and local publications to call for equal treatment under the law. Despite thedestruction of the queer waterfront sites and their replacement with office towersand freeway ramps, the displaced queer community managed to continue organizingand resisting within other designated contained zones in the city, such as theTenderloin, where their presence was allowed and tolerated but still tightly controlled.
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Papers by Chandra Laborde
Articles by Chandra Laborde
Books by Chandra Laborde
Book Reviews by Chandra Laborde