Queer nights at Lisbon. A socio-historical perspective of night as a space-time for gender liberation

Abstract

In this presentation, we intend to present the queer nightlife in Lisbon (Portugal) by considering three specific moments in history: the 20s of the twentieth century, the 80s and contemporaneity. The data used for this analysis are: historical sources (scientific, media, literature and illustration) to analyse the 1st and 2nd periods under analysis, and literature review and data from a websurvey implemented in the scope of the Sexism Free Night project (sexismfreenight.eu) to analyse queer night in the contemporaneity. Through this analysis, we intend to discuss the role of nightlife as a stage for gender liberation and experimentation. The informal, transgressive and experimental character of nightlife as well as the centralization of hedonism allowed queer communities at Lisbon to bound, create specific nightlife subcultures considered safer for gender and sexual expression. In different moments in history, queer communities led the underground nightlife subcultures and, because of this, they can be considered trendsetters for their role in allowing nightlife and urban innovation and transformation. Nightlife economy is also a key sector for the economic inclusion of queer communities that find it hard to be employed in the daytime and more formal sectors. However, the use of drugs, the existence of pandemics (HIV in the 80s and Covid- 19) and the precariousness of nightlife tend to be used to re-stigmatize, re-pathologize and re- marginalize these communities.