The rhetoric and politics of property

Property talk, we want to argue, is a pervasive feature of the everyday safety talk of lesbians and gay men. Property talk is to be found in common terms that indicate possession and belonging such as ‘my’ and ‘mine’, ‘our’ or ‘ours’. Danielle, a key informant interviewee (KII) from Manchester, ¹ provides an example of the use of everyday property talk in an observation about Manchester's gay Village. She explained:

If heterosexuals come here then they need to be aware of what it is about and be friendly towards our needs and what we're about, and remember and respect. They're here on our invitation in a way because it is our space.

(Danielle, KII, Man., 1999; emphasis added)