Larp as a Potential Space for Non-Formal Queer Cultural Heritage

Larp, or live action role-playing, is argued here to hold real potential as a non-formal space for documenting, disseminating, and educating audiences about queer history, culture, and heritage. The central thesis draws a parallel between larps and the drag venues and social spaces that have long functioned as informal heritage sites for queer communities. Such spaces transmit memory, community identity, and cultural knowledge outside institutional archives, and the argument holds that interactive simulation can perform a similar role. The case is developed primarily through the larp Just a Little Lovin' (2011), which depicts the 1980s HIV/AIDS crisis and its surrounding queer social worlds.

The most significant evidence concerns player testimony. Participants reportedly described simulated queer venues and historically grounded framing activities as deepening their understanding of the 1980s queer community, its subcultures, and the impact of the AIDS epidemic. Cited accounts suggest that larps can convey the affective "spirit" of a historical period and generate intense community bonds, even though the author stresses that larps are fictionalised rather than accurate reproductions of the past. The proposal that ephemeral queer performance spaces, whose cultural function lies in their co-created and moment-to-moment character, might be modelled through larp design is presented as a particularly promising avenue.

The argument is consistently paired with caution. The author warns that simulating marginalised experience risks misrepresentation and "identity tourism," or dark tourism that treats trauma as spectacle, and may reproduce harmful social norms. Careful design, historical grounding, and structured debriefing are identified as the principal safeguards. The scope is largely conceptual and centres on Anglophone queer history and a single influential example, supported by a bibliography spanning larp scholarship, queer performance theory, and heritage studies.