Research
Sexuality and Planning
Same Sex Couples and Residential Location Choices
1 (dragged).pdfThis graduate research was conducted as a part of the course UP 494 - Neighbourhood Planning in nine cities across continental United States.
Outcomes of the research indicated that there was an observed residential clustering of both male and female same-sex couples, while male same-sex couples exhibited higher affordability and hence inhabited markedly expensive neighborhoods with higher residential location choices, as opposed to female same-sex couple clusters.
Planning for queer-friendly spaces
A slight change in the system brings a huge change in the society, doesn’t it? The hate that the mainstream society has for the LGBTQ community; has it led to the exclusion of this strata of the society? Will a slight change in the planning of the city, lead to its inclusion into the urban social fabric?
Despite all the odds playing against this community, it has organically carved its own niche by the creating spaces to interact within other components of the community. From Rajiv Chowk in Delhi, Marine Drive in Mumbai, Z bridge in Pune, to smaller less-known spaces. Can these spaces be organized and re-planned? Can new such spaces be formed, which can be even more welcoming?
Old Indian customs had the kotha of the ‘Hijra’ community situated away from the main city. Recent western approaches to LGBTQ inclusion have been more based on the housing perspective: by creating neighborhoods exclusively for LGBTQ members, known as gayborhoods, one of the few examples being the Castro District in San Francisco. What we don’t see that it has led to the indirect segregation of the community.
Till when will we Indian Planners keep ignoring the existence of this community? When will we stop thinking about how the heteronormative society 'accept' the planned queer spaces? Our excuse will always remain that it will disrupt the working of the city.
We all forget one basic human attribute while planning: humankind is versatile by nature. We automatically bend our-selves to fit within specified limits when we have no more space to expand. Parallely speaking, the LGBTQ friendly nature of Rajiv Chowk is recognized by the frequent visitors to Connaught Place and the space prospers to be a bustling commercial area despite the fact. Directly speaking, the society has accepted the space to be actively gay.
What we as new age planners can do is to acknowledge basic LGBTQIA+ inclusion by studying the organic growth of Indian ‘Gay points’, as the slang goes, and equitably develop similar spaces without deliberate segregation.