COMING OUT OF GEOGRAPHY - TOWARDS A QUEER EPISTEMOLOGY

In this paper I argue that in order to challenge the marginalisation o f lesbians, gay men, and other sexual dissidents within the discipline , we need to pay more attention to how geography has been studied. I c onsider how different theoretical approaches to the subject have treat ed sexual dissidence. While positivism has been particularly guilty of ignoring the interests of lesbians and gay men, the new cultural geog raphy, and feminist geography, though enabling a limited amount of wor k on the geography of lesbians and gay men, may also reproduce heteros exism. This raises the question of which methodological and epistemolo gical frameworks work best in promoting the interests of sexual dissid ents within the discipline, and the academy more generally. Last I con sider the material components of sexual dissident identity and how the se impact upon the production of geographical knowledge.