Using this Space as My Space

I am watching Ariana Huffington on Charlie Rose. She has points, but her voice kind of makes me zone out. Sorry, Ariana. Had that itch to write, so here we are. I am grappling with my second thesis idea, that of 'Queer Space,' in that I was to articulate my ideas of queer is not isolated to sex, rather, the idea, in the post-lesbian-feminist, post-gay liberation writings, is that queer is that which opposes the norm. Through this opposition, the 'fallacy or normalcy,' if you will, is shown and thus is changed in some way equalizes the disparities in society. Make any sense? Then comes the 'space' part of this idea. Much work has been done in the gay and lesbian literature on the city as creating or harboring spaces used for illicit activities (sex. drugs, violence), long held as the moral decay centers of American society. Rural-ness = wholesomely moral. To me, suburban and rural areas are the ones to be feared, places of isolation, hatred, bigotry, misundertanding, violence behind the picket fence, murder in the bedroom, and all that. I believe this distinction between urban/rural is still being debated, which is one of the reasons I want to explore these topics. At least I think that is why.

Queer Space is thusly those areas of the built environment where those activities labeled 'abnormal' or against the norm reside. Those closets of man-made materials set in the rural areas of the urban - parks, public places, open spaces, and the rural areas in the country - those places in the mountains, the fields and plains where people meet and exchange what a 'majority' would call deviant or against the norm. These spaces are also the spaces of misunderstandings, homophobia, hatred, violence, rape, muggings, and assaults. All of these areas are. Is that what ties them together or is it something else?