2.5
CASE STUDY (FINDINGS)
Safety and Queer Communities Safety as Individuals: Urban Scale Safety
if I have any problems.” Others suggested that “I would feel relaxed in a place with music such as a bar.”
From the DJ Workshop Interviews
We recorded the conversations with the consent of the interviewees and collected nine pieces of valid data. The information from our interviews as the following texts show:
The remaining five respondents in the interviews thought of physical safety first when they heard safety. One of the interviewees expressed that “Safety for me is the feeling of being with friends I know, and feeling safe can depend on a group of people. I feel relaxed when people around me identify themselves in the same way as I do.” Another respondent suggested that “I feel safe in a place where I can be my true self”.
Four of the nine recorded responses had the concept of geography in mind when they heard about Safety. Some interviewees said that sometimes they felt a bit overwhelmed in crowded streets (West Street, etc.) because it seemed that many pedestrians would look at them with scrutiny as they passed by. One respondent said, “Passers-by subconsciously comment on my dress, maybe not maliciously, but it makes me want to run away”.
It is clear that a sense of self-expression as a collective is a key element in the safety experience as much as the identification of the social circle around you. After the beginning of the pandemic, many spaces created specifically for the Queer community were closed. Most of these spaces were not designed to make a profit, but to better gather the Queer community and bring a sense of security (Artz,2021).
Two interviewees also mentioned that they felt safe in the library. They were both satisfied with the location of the DINA bar, “The staff is friendly and I trust them to help me
Fig 11.
Conversation Diagram ( Source: Authors)
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