Flagrantly Flaunting It?

SUMMARY The city of Vancouver has two overtly identified gay and lesbian areas: West-end, primarily perceived to be associated with men, and East-end, mostly identified with lesbians; thus, where the gender-ization of space and the sexualization of space converge, the urban lesbian and gay landscape is often gendered by spatial association. In reality, however, lesbian and gay enclaves exist outside these more popular locations and beyond the city peripheries and these two specific locations are not as neatly ordered as their mythical simplicity might suggest. This research explores the construction of lesbian spaces in metro Vancouver through extensive research which began during summer 1996, and the perceptions and expectations of lesbians living in both the East-end and the West-end of Vancouver will be examined. This introductory paper provides a discussion on the opposing views of lesbians in Vancouver expressed in the survey which explode commonly held myths and stereotypes of lesbians in the East-end and the West-end. In essence, lesbian residents hold opinions of the lesbians residing in the “other” community which have political and ideological implications.