ABSTRACT
Whereas most attention within global queer media studies today has been paid to ‘hook-up’ or dating apps, this chapter argues that in the case of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, the inclusion of a wider set of digital, social networks is key to understanding queer culture and its relation to the spatial politics of the island. Digital platforms—such as Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Instagram—mitigate the island’s spatial and geographic conditions: lack of places to gather, a huge suburban sprawl, a heavy dependency on cars, the prevalence of conservative Christianity in its municipalities, and an increase in migration to the US mainland, while also empowering the queer community to mobilize. The chapter’s research material is based on a series of interviews with 19 participants who identified as non-straight. Borrowing Jane Rendell’s ideas on ‘site-writing’, as well as drawing on the work of Javier E. Laureano, the chapter is structured as a series of fragments that address—from multiple perspectives and social networks—a situation that recently occurred with/to a trans person at Vidy’s Café: a straight venue in San Juan that lends its space for queer events once a month.
