This book explores changes and continuations in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer lives, identities and spatial practices in the 21st century from around the globe, using a range of methods to connect pasts, places and policies with contemporary times, linking individual and social presences (and absences) affectively and materially.

1. Against the Dignity of Man: Sexology Constructing Deviance during 'Normalization' in Czechoslovakia; Katerina Lišková 2. Community at the Backstage: Gays and Lesbians in the Czech Republic; Katerina Nedbálková 3. Lesbian Lives and Real Existing Socialism in Late Soviet Russia; Francesca Stella 4. Identities and Citizenship under Construction: Historicising the 'T' in LGBT Anti-violence Politics in Brazil; Jan Simon Hutta and Carsten Balzer 5. Liminal Subjects, Marginal Spaces and Material Legacies: Older Gay Men, Home and Belonging(s); Andrew Gorman-Murray 6. The Meaning of Home for Transgendered People; Youngsook Choi 7. Belonging: Lesbians and Gay Men's Claims to Material Spaces; Mark Casey 8. 'That's not really my scene': Working-class Lesbians in (and out of) Place; Yvette Taylor 9. Queering the Meaning of 'Neighbourhood': Reinterpreting the Lesbian-Queer Experience of Park Slope, Brooklyn, 1983-2008; Jen Jack Gieseking 10. Present Absences: Hidden Geographies of Lesbian Parenting; Karina Luzia 11. 'Queer' and 'Teacher' as Symbiosis? Exploring Absence and Presence in Discursive Space'; Max Biddulph 12. Organisation Studies: Not Nearly 'queer enough'; Nick Rumens 13. Queerying the Public Administration in Italy: Local Challenges to a National Standstill; Chiara Bertone and Beatrice Gusmono

'Drawing on original research, this elegant and accomplished book offers a nuanced account of queer lives, communities and politics. Focusing on cultures, places and experiences oft-neglected within mainstream gay scholarship, this collection significantly advances understandings of the relationship between sexual diversity, home-making and exclusionary processes of belonging within the contemporary world.' - Davina Cooper, Professor of Law & Political Theory, University of Kent, UK.​