Resilient queer subjects: Lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women on the Israeli periphery

• Lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LBT) women encounter LGBTphobia in rural spaces. • LGBTphobic encounters render the subjectivity of LBT women political. • Discursive mechanisms are used to reduce the significance of LGBTphobia. • Resilient political subjectivity emerges out of LBT women’s vulnerability. • LBT women’s resilience cast doubt on the vulnerability-empowerment binary. In recent years, LGBT subjectivities have been depicted as strong. Moreover, these identities are increasingly connected to normativity (homonormativity) and deemed a part of the national consensus (homonationalism). Correspondingly, another framework revolves around the perception of LGBTs as fragile, linking them to a discourse of vulnerability (e.g., queer and LGBT safe spaces). At any rate, most of the research has concentrated on urban LGBT subjectivities. However, the experiences of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LBT) women in rural and peripheral spaces demand a reappraisal of what constitutes LGBT subjectivities in rural spaces, small villages, and peripheral towns. This article is predicated on 61 qualitative interviews with LBT women on Israel’s periphery. According to the study’s findings, participants regularly encounter manifestations of LGBTphobia. Nevertheless, their spatial experiences of sexuality forge rural LBT resilience. The paper’s analysis explicates three socio-spatial distancing mechanisms that the participants use to cope with LGBTphobia. As such, resilience is an outgrowth of recuperation and helps the women defend themselves. In light of the above, I argue that LBT subjectivities in rural expanses become resilient in the face of such prejudice. Moreover, this fortitude casts doubt on the portrayal of LGBTs as either vulnerable and in need of protection or empowered and warranting critique.