The power of generative dissonance: Creating spaces of and for difference in queer scenes

The idea that constructive energy is borne from discordance is a key assertion in interdisciplinary scholarly literature on queer communities, especially for individuals and groups said to be liminally positioned at the intersection of racialisation, transness, and other forms of marginalisation. Through an ethnographic analysis of Amsterdam's queer scene, this chapter investigates the contention that multiply-marginalised queer people experience their social spaces as transformative. It argues that the dissonance experienced by multiply-marginalised subjectivities in LGBTQ+ space has the potential to instigate transformation in the form of space-creation when there is relative security in relation to the norms of the space. Efforts to increase social accessibility within queer scenes can be bolstered by a more open-ended conception of queerness that is supported by structures designed to promote the creation of new spaces for those not otherwise empowered.