ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book on lesbian geographies focuses on the intersections of gender and sexualities is not only important, but necessary in engaging with social lives and working towards social justice. Lesbian geographies provides an important critique of the intersections of patriarchy, sexisms, homophobia and heterosexisms, as well as ensuring that lesbians and queer women's spatialities are made visible. Focusing on lesbian geographies enables an explicit focus on women or female-identified sexualities. The identity politics and identifications within the category lesbian are historically specific. Anglo-American lesbian geographies take a number of forms and begins by examining how lesbians appropriated urban space, looking at how lesbians negotiated space including heterosexualised space. Anglo-American lesbian geographies emerged in the 1990s in response to, and developing from, urban geographies of sexualities that had their focus on gay men.
