ABSTRACT
In November 1991 a lesbian couple made the headlines in the British gay press when they were thrown out of a supermarket in Nottingham for kissing in the store (Scene Out 1991). What their experience demonstrates is that the street1-and I mean this to include not only the pavement/sidewalk, but also the places, such as shops and cafes, which the street contains-is not an asexual space. Rather, it is commonly assumed to be ‘naturally’ or ‘authentically’ heterosexual (Bell et al. 1994). Whilst couples of the opposite sex are free to embrace over the supermarket trolley, the lesbian kiss caused panic because ‘images of selves trouble as they cut into spaces where they don’t “belong’” (Probyn 1992: 505).
