Cannabis Spaces, Relationships, and Relajos: Queer and Trans Chicanx Feminisms Grounding Cannabis Histories and Futures

Abstract

Cannabis Spaces, Relationships, and Relajos prioritizes the experiences of Chicanx and Latinx LGBTQ+ communities that have made current legal cannabis spaces possible. The dissertation examines historical and contemporary cannabis culture in Los Angeles (L.A.), California, to understand how queer of color cannabis histories, relations, and spaces refuse subversion to a capitalist cannabis industry by centering care, cannabis education, and political advocacy. It hypothesizes that Chicanx/Latinx communities across L.A. foster landscapes of political and cultural resistance within and beyond the limits of cannabis legality. By analyzing cannabis spaces and relationships through queer Chicanx feminist archival, ethnographic, and autoethnographic methodologies, my emphasis on gender and racial cultural cannabis histories in current discussions of cannabis legality reveal how cannabis policies are used to oppress racialized, gendered, and queer communities, even in states trying to repair the harm caused by the criminalization of cannabis. This dissertation addresses the historically ingrained racism and homophobia while also proposing alternative ways of imagining cannabis culture. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary approach contributes to the emerging field of Critical Cannabis Studies that has largely focused on privileged white heterosexual men. Joining Critical Cannabis Studies, Queer of Color Feminisms, and Chicanx Studies, my dissertation illustrates that 1) cannabis spaces are complex social, cultural, and political instances created by people who engage with cannabis, 2) LGBTQ+ cannabis relationships give insight to the ways legality and criminality impact everyday queer communities of color, and 3) racialized communities resist state oppression by creating alternative cannabis relationships and spaces, which can inform more equitable cannabis policies and urban futures.