The topic I chose was Queer Spaces. The three articles specify on inequality of many queer establishments who fail to meet other minorities' needs (i.e-racism or transphobia in the gay community). For a society that is highly represented as white urban gay males, the GLBT community (while comprising a myriad of other races) often relegates different geographic parameters onto their non-Caucasian counterparts thus, segregating and weakening a community of people whose goals are similar in nature.
Source 1:
Johnson, Gerry Christopher. "Divided We Dance: Black Gays Get Their Own Party Started."Philadelphia Weekly. 27 Apr. 2010. Web. 9 Oct. 2010.
This article, written in the Philadelphia Weekly, speaks on the segregation of Philly's queer nightlife. Giving a brief history on post-war Philadelphia, the article delves into why queer black nightlife differs from that of the caucasian nightlife. Facing racial tension, black gays during the 1940s to 70s created their own social gatherings and formed their own establishments in highly black neighborhoods. Now, the segregation which was instilled in the 70s has become a fixture of gay nightlife and complacency replaces any urge for change. Conceding that many patrons choose one location over the other by music choice, Johnson does state that tensions are not as bad as they once were. However, since this article was published only a few months ago, the story is certainly prevalent enough to show otherwise. If one reads further past the 3 pages of the article and reads the readers' responses, a few remark on the racism of the city while others point out the hypocrisy that is made the white gay community by excluding their African-American peers. After reading the article, I was struck by the 'this is how it is, this is how it will always be' attitude. Curious, I searched for an article on the Twin Cities and found this: Twin Cities Racism within the Gay Community
Queer Youth Space is a community organization based out of Seattle that aims to incorporate youth into queer spaces in the Seattle area. Focusing on youth issues and youth engagement, QYS speaks on how youth are often left out of queer agenda campaigns that focus on issues like marriage equality and by queer events that are 21+. The organization realizes that youth are often the spark for social change and are a substantially large proponent in gaining any momentum in social issues. In order to strengthen the queer community, QYS believes that incorporating queer youth is essential because "Queer is not a 21+ identity". The organization is run by youth and all of the initiatives are pursued by and focused around youth issues.
Source 3: This relatively long article, originally published in the Journal of Bisexuality highlights the "myths of the 'glbt community' and togetherness. Analyzing the roots of the problem which are discussed as the construction of homosexuality and the histories of transphobia and biphobia respectively. It then goes further in depth to explain how discrimination within the glbt community can lead to political consequences and ultimately hurts the queer agenda. The issue, as Weiss states, is the fear of gays and lesbians (whose accustomed nature to the increased visibility and acceptance into mainstream society) to lose their identities by those within their own community who challenge it. Overall, I was amazed by the number of articles I found regarding this topic. I had debated for a while on what to write on for the broad topic that is "queer space". I realized, after reviewing the Judith Butler responses that a division within our own community is much more detrimental than outwardly responses. Fun little tid-bit about Starbucks I found
Weiss, Jillian Todd. "GL vs BT." Ramapo College. Journal of Bisexuality, 2004. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. 
I really appreciate the sources you have presented here. I am also focussing on space for my Tracking Term assignment. I like that while working within the same topic, we found very different approaches to our first source list. Your proposal of sources that seek to complicate the spaces that are moderated by GLBT people which are supposed to be all-inclusive is really relevant to the issue of queer space. It gets at the queer question of 'who is included in equality?' I am curious to know more about the QYS organization you found. What are implications of the location of this organization in a Northwest Urban city in the US? How does it seek to include other marginalized groups within the queer community, if it does at all?
I am also intrigued by the place that the conflict between identity politics and queer politics has in a given space.
Let's collaborate if you're interested in sharing some thoughts.
The first source that you posted up relating to the gay bar scene, I was appalled to find that there is still discrimination within the gay community. Especially when it comes down to the gay community already categorized as a minority, and to see that they would treat another gay person differently due to the color of their skin, is just shocking. I recently had a disagreement with a friend of mine when he said that something was "gay" and after taking so many courses under the GWSS department, it's hard to just sit idly by and not say something about it. Although I am not gay or even considered as an ally of the gay community, I could not stand people using the "gay" term in a negative way. I'm glad that you were able to find a source relating to how discrimination can still exist within the minority groups.
Your source about the youth acting as a tool in creating social change was very interesting as well. I do find that it is unfair to not include these young minds in exploring further in depth about their sexual identity. I do believe that it age should not be the main factor in preventing the youth from getting involved and making a change.
In relation to my tracking term assignment, my main focus is on Eve Sedgwick and how she influenced the study of GLBT. In a lot of her work she explores the relationship between same sex, and how it ties into literary work. Although Sedgwick was married and she was not gay, I believed that she did discover something unique about these same sex relationships and how significant they are to the community. The same goes for any gays that do not identify as white, middle class, or over 21.