Planning, Justice and LGBT urban politics in Tel-Aviv: A queer dilemma

The paper discusses planning policies and urban politics, their relation to LGBT communities in the city, and their potential to promote spatial justice within the local planning policies. The paper briefly reviews the main theoretical issues discussed in the literature regarding the connection between planning and sexuality. It also reviews three theoretical concepts of justice that relate to planning policy and urban politics: distributive Justice, procedural justice and recognition. The case study of the Gay Center at Tel Aviv’s Meir Park is analyzed with reference to these three spatial justice concepts. The main argument is that the center is a clear example of distributive and procedural justice. However, when we analyze this case study in light of the concept of recognition, the findings are somewhat ambiguous. On the one hand, the case of the Gay Center indicates growing recognition of Tel Aviv’s LGBT community. On the other hand, a queer analysis shows that this recognition is partial as it is limited to certain parts of the community and to spaces frequented by LGBTs in Tel-Aviv.