Chiya, Khulekani Vincent2023-01-172023-01-172022https://hdl.handle.net/10539/34098A research Report submitted to the Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, Faculty of Humanities at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Social and Psychological Research, 2021This research gives an account of how queer bodies navigate everyday spaces in Johannesburg. It uses queer theory and Bourdieu’s theory of habitus to conceptualise queerness. This study adopts a qualitative queer methodology, which combines one on one interviews and an analysis of visual representations by examining social media accounts of queer people. The findings are organised into three themes; namely, gender identity and sexual orientation: wild queers and shifting selves; assertion of identity and safety: unspoken queer parameters; and queering space and negotiating compulsory heteronormativity: queer mothering and gender trouble. This study is consistent with the findings of previous studies that have looked at queer identities and space. However, unlike previous studies that focused on gay and lesbian people, this study focuses on the diverse range of queer people including transgender persons. The findings suggest that heteronormativity imposes itself as a norm and that has implications for the kind of queer habitus that can be negotiated within spaces of Johannesburg. However, the study points to generative queering of space in ways that affirm and enable queer lives. Forms of relating such as queer mothering disrupt homophobia and kinship practices and point to alternative possibilities and sites of care. The implications of this research are that queer lives need to be treated with more sensitivity and more research focusing on transgender lives would benefit both scholarship and the broader Trans community.enDissertation