Talca no es Santiago: Moral geography, rurality, and infrastructure of possibility in LGBTIQA+ violence and survival

Background Violence against LGBTIQA+ individuals is not limited to discrete acts of aggression. It also constitutes a territorial ecology that unevenly distributes habitability, safety, and recognition. This study examines how the statement “Talca is not Santiago” works as more than a comment on city size: it names a moral geography where reputation, social surveillance, and uneven access to infrastructure produce distinct thresholds of visibility, risk, and agency. Methods We used Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) following Braun and Clarke to analyze a subcorpus of seven individual interviews and one focus group (n = 7) conducted in Talca and one focus group (n = 5) conducted in Santiago, drawn from a broader research project according to predefined criteria (density of territorial references and representation of both study sites). Reporting follows COREQ guidelines (S1 Checklist). We recruited participants through LGBTIQA+ organizations and social networks; participants self-identified with non-hegemonic sexual-gender identities, were over 18, and reported subjective experiences of violence. The analytical sample is composed predominantly of young (19–35 years) university-educated participants, with representation of cisgender, transmasculine, and non-binary identities and no trans women. We calibrate the scope of our conclusions accordingly. Results We constructed three themes: (1) Infrastructure of possibility—LGBTIQA+ life becomes practicable or precarious depending on available circuits of information, networks, and spaces; (2) Surveillance and reputation—in medium-sized cities and rural environments, social legibility intensifies daily control and shrinks the margin to maneuver, which also affects the possibility of leaving violent relationships; (3) Mobility and education as partial territorial rupture—moving for studies and traveling through urban circuits reconfigures future horizons without erasing access asymmetries. Conclusions Within the scope of a young, predominantly cisgender, university-educated sample, territorial scale operates as a constitutive condition of violence and survival, not as a backdrop. Interventions on LGBTIQA+ violence therefore need to address territorial conditions: connectivity, information circulation, community spaces, and confidentiality safeguards adapted to medium-sized cities and ruralities.