Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S, the "Entertainment Capital of the World" (Official City of Las Vegas Website), and a possible glimpse of future U.S. culture (Block, 1999). Las Vegas’ success can be attributed to the illusion that it creates. By combining adventure with the opportunity to realize the American Dream of wealth and life satisfaction, Las Vegas offers both entertainment and hope. In order to maintain the illusion, possible detractors - such as frustration, inconvenience, dirt, and nature – are conspicuously left out. It is possible to visit ancient Egypt and Rome, New York, and France without having to deal with time zones, jet lag, foreign languages, or additional costs. For many visitors and residents of Las Vegas, a major distraction to the illusion would be the presence of homosexuality and gender transgression. The purpose of this paper is explore Las Vegas from a Queer Theory perspective – to identify queer presence in cultural expectations that are perceived as being ‘straight" and/or gender conforming; to highlight the presence of group of silenced individuals; and, to discuss the possible functions of such silence (Doty, 1993).

Heavily influenced by Foucault (1976) and Derrida (1976), Queer Theory is an attempt to link gender and sexual orientation in order to demonstrate the reciprocal functions of each form of identity and to question the essentialism that has marked theories of identity (Butler, 1990; Halperin, 1995; Lagose, 1996). Queer Theory differs from Gay/Lesbian studies by challenging the binary opposition (Derrida, 1976) of heterosexuality/homosexuality with the experiences of bisexuality and transgender experiences.

While straight or heterosexual individuals who do not conform to gender expectations could be included in the "queer" category, I have chosen to focus this study upon individuals who are gay/lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered. My investigation of Las Vegas will include: a review of web-based materials about the city; cyber-chats with queer residents of Las Vegas; and observation of Las Vegas with attention to artifacts associated with queer cultures within straight or gender conforming environments.

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