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Homonationalism is the favorable association between a nationalist ideology and LGBT people or their rights. [1]
| Part of a series on |
| Nationalism |
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Homonationalism is the favorable association between a nationalist ideology and LGBT people or their rights. [1]
The term was originally proposed by the researcher in gender studies Jasbir K. Puar in 2007 to refer to the processes by which neoliberal and capitalist power structures line up with the claims of the LGBT community in order to justify racist, xenophobic and aporophobic positions, especially against Muslims, basing them on prejudices that immigrants are homophobic and that Western society is egalitarian. [2] [1] Thus, sexual diversity and LGBT rights are used to sustain political stances against immigration, becoming increasingly common among far-right parties. [3] In Terrorist Assemblages, Puar describes homonationalism as a "form of sexual exceptionalism [dependent on the] segregation and disqualification of racial and sexual others" [4] from the dominant image of a particular society, most often discussed within an American framework. [2]
The concept of homonationalism was created to describe and critique the nationalization of queer movements and growing anti-immigrant stances, while ignoring homophobia still propagated in Western society. [5] Queer equality within a Western homonationalist framework is showcased as inclusion in heteronormative practices, namely legal marriage. [2] Social equality claimed by Western society is contrasted with countries that either criminalize homosexuality or do not legally or formally recognize same-sex marriages; lack of queer equality is often associated with Muslim nations. [1] Puar argues in her 2013 article, "Rethinking Homonationalism", that the concept should not be seen solely as a description of "bad politics" [6] or a political accusation, but that it is instead a structure of modernity and has latched onto Western societal constructions in order to support the dominant power structures. [6]
![Demonstration against homonationalism during Labour Day 2012 in France by Les Pantheres roses [fr] Les Pantheres roses Rassemblement festif et antiraciste 1 mai 2012.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Les_Panth%C3%A8res_roses_Rassemblement_festif_et_antiraciste_1_mai_2012.jpg/220px-Les_Panth%C3%A8res_roses_Rassemblement_festif_et_antiraciste_1_mai_2012.jpg)
Bruno Perreau has criticized the premises of Puar's argument. While agreeing with her critique of nationalist claims among some LGBT groups, he argues that Puar idealizes those she calls the "sexually nonnormative racialized subject". [2] Perreau explains that "deconstruction of norms cannot be dissociated from their reproduction". [7] Jason Ritchie has also critiqued some of the ways homonationalism has been used, especially as a totalizing theory. [8]
A study of Populist Radical Right (PRR) parties in Western Europe, which hold anti-immigration stances, found that even with circulation of homonationalist ideas, queer voters and anti-immigrant voters claiming to be allies did not vote in line with these parties. These voters favored the mainstream VVD, which was more moderate on migration. Voting in alignment with homonationalist ideals has been observed in Austria, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. The study did not find homonationalist rhetoric in conservative Central and Eastern European PRR parties, in large part due to more mainstream homophobic attitudes. [9]
PRR parties in Western Europe and elsewhere have relied on defence of "liberal western values," a means of rallying support for their anti-immigration policy positions. One experimental study demonstrates that the same is true of citizens. Individuals who were exposed to anti-LGBT+ rights protests were significantly more likely to say they support LGBT+ rights when the protestors they were shown were of Muslims than they were if the protestors they were shown were of white locals. [10]
In Terrorist Assemblages, Puar writes that "sexual deviance is linked to the process of discerning, othering, and quarantining terrorist bodies, but these racially and sexually perverse figures also labor in the service of disciplining and normalizing subjects worthy of rehabilitation away from these bodies, in other words, signaling and enforcing the mandatory terms of patriotism". [11] Puar claims that the binary reinforced by the othering involved in the War on Terror together with the othering of LGBT bodies has pushed some queer bodies to a "U.S. national citizenship within a spatial-temporal domain" in which she refers to as homonationalism, "short for 'homonormative nationalism.'" [2]
Abu Ghraib was a U.S. military prison in Iraq which was closed following citations of human rights violations committed against the detained. Pictures of some of the violations were sent to CBS news, creating a nationwide scandal in 2004. The photos taken depict sexual abuse, rape, and torture of the detainees. Much of the sexual abuse taking place simulated homosexual acts in a "culturally specific [...] matrix of torture". [12] The inclusion of homosexuality into an American national identity, homonationalism, was specifically employed in Abu Ghraib to torture and sexually and racially other the detainees. According to Puar, during this scandal, queer liberal news medias continued to other Muslim sexuality and identity. [2]
Gaetano Venezia III argues homonationalist narratives were demonstrated in response to the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida in 2016 which was the deadliest mass shooting in American history until the Las Vegas shooting the following year. Venezia argues this disregards historical shootings with more victims, "'...including race riots and labor disputes in the early 1900s and massacres perpetrated by the U.S. Army or settlers in the American West.' Thus, describing the Pulse shooting as the worst mass shooting obscures state violence, protects the image of the state, and minimizes or erases the oppression of indigenous people and racial minorities." [13] Venezia argues that the responses to the Pulse shooting strengthen and protect not only the image of the state but its officials. "Police and politicians often get good press by expressing their sympathy and solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, even as they remain unapologetic and unresponsive in regards to oppressive policies and actions, like the Stonewall riots, abuse of trans folk, and restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights and protections." [13]
In January 2011, the Netherlands hosted an early international conference on the theme, called 'Sexual Nationalisms – Gender, Sexuality and the Politics of Belonging in the New Europe'. [14]
 | This section may be unbalanced toward certain viewpoints.(May 2024) |
In a 2011 article, Sarah Schulman argues that the Israeli government, as part of a marketing campaign to depict Israel as "relevant and modern", "harness[ed] the gay community to reposition its global image." [15] Schulman writes that anti-occupation LGBT activists have labeled these strategies as pinkwashing : "a deliberate strategy to conceal the continuing violations of Palestinians' human rights behind an image of modernity signified by Israeli gay life." [15]
Also writing in 2011, Maya Mikdashi states, "Today, the promise of 'gay rights' for Palestinian[s] goes something like this: The United States will protect your right to not be detained because [you are] gay, but will not protect you from being detained because you are Palestinian." [16] Mikdashi argues that pinkwashing is not about the toleration of queer bodies and identities, but is instead
a political strategy within a discourse of Islamophobia and Arabophobia, and it is part of a larger project to anchor all politics within the axis of identity, and identitarian (and identifiable) groups. Thus critics of pinkwashing who assume an international queer camaraderie repeat a central tenet of homonationalism: homosexuals should be in solidarity with and empathize with each other because they are homosexual. [16]
Pinkwashing tactics are described as the whitewashing of racial and religious oppression while claiming to support and enact modern gay rights solely for the representative image of modernity and liberalism. [2] Though Puar describes pinkwashing mostly within the context of Israel, other Western societies including the United States and Canada enact pinkwashing tactics to promote tourism, keep healthy trade and communication lines with other liberal governments, and feign the idea liberalism and democracy.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, members of the LGBT community in Ukraine who support their government's war effort feared setbacks in the progress made since Euromaidan. [17] Political scientist Emil Edenborg invoked the concept of homonationalism in Ukraine and the West as a counterpart to a Russian nationalism centered on traditional values, writing that "Russia's geopoliticization of gender is mirrored by homonationalist and femonationalist discourses in the West, when gay rights and gender equality are portrayed as evidence of 'our' national superiority vis-à-vis backward Others, whether Muslim immigrants or homophobic Russians." [18]
The rise of the Hindu Nationalism and the Bharatiya Janata Party has also seen some members of the LGBT community in India allying with Hindutva, while furthering tropes of Islamophobia and anti-minority rhetoric. [19] [20] This has also been seen in attempts to justify policy changes such as the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. [21] In 2019 an event at SOAS, London was disrupted by masked individuals wearing balaclavas and carrying a rainbow flag that said “Gay for J&K”, “Article 370 is homophobic”, and “Regressive Left, don’t betray us". [22] In 2023, the Indian Government's Ministry of Social Justice appointed scholar Giti Thadani to the National Council for Transgender Persons amidst allegations of Islamophobic tweets and hate speech.
A top leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu Nationalist paramilitary organisation, had also come out in support of the LGBT community while the Supreme Court of India was hearing petitions to legalise same-sex marriage stating that "Hindu society does not see the transgender community as a problem" and that LGBTQ people "should have their own private and social space". [23] Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, a petitioner in the Supreme Court case to legalise same-sex marriage, has also been described by Al Jazeera as a 'Hindutva Idealogue' when he met with U.S. Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna. [24] The Indian-American Muslim Council issued a statement saying it was “deeply disappointed to see Khanna engaging with a far-right Islamophobe”, and condemned him for embracing those who “enable [this] cycle of hate and violence” against Muslims. [25]
Within the Muslim world, sentiment towards LGBTQ people varies and has varied between societies and individual Muslims, but is contemporarily negative. While colloquial and in many cases de facto official acceptance of at least some homosexual behavior was commonplace in pre-modern periods, later developments, starting from the 19th century, have created a generally hostile environment for LGBTQ people. Most Muslim-majority countries have opposed moves to advance LGBTQ rights and recognition at the United Nations (UN), including within the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council.
Queer is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. Originally meaning 'strange' or 'peculiar', queer came to be used pejoratively against LGBT people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to reclaim the word as a neutral or positive self-description.
Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual minorities can also constitute cultural minorities were Adolf Brand, Magnus Hirschfeld, and Leontine Sagan in Germany. These pioneers were later followed by the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis in the United States.
Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBTQ studies is the study of topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoric, asexual, aromantic, queer, questioning, and intersex people and cultures.
Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric comprises themes, catchphrases, and slogans that have been used in order to demean lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is widely considered a form of hate speech, which is illegal in countries such as the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
"Gay agenda" or "homosexual agenda" is a pejorative term used by sectors of the Christian religious right as a disparaging way to describe the advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual sexual orientations and relationships. The term originated among social conservatives in the United States and has been adopted in nations with active anti-LGBT movements such as Hungary and Uganda.
Homosexuality in India is socially permitted by most of the traditional native philosophies of the nation, and legal rights continue to be advanced in mainstream politics and regional politics. Homosexual cohabitation is also legally permitted and comes with some legal protections and rights.
Queer nationalism is a phenomenon related both to the gay and lesbian liberation movement and nationalism. Adherents of this movement support the notion that the LGBT community forms a distinct people due to their unique culture and customs.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Georgia face severe challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. However, Georgia is one of the few post-Soviet states that directly prohibits discrimination against all LGBT people in legislation, labor-related or otherwise. Since 2012, Georgian law has considered crimes committed on the grounds of one's sexual orientation or gender identity an aggravating factor in prosecution. The legislative ban on discrimination has been enacted as a part of the Government efforts to bring the country closer to the European Union and make the country's human rights record in line with the demands of Georgia's European and Euro-Atlantic integration.
Communist attitudes towards LGBTQ rights have evolved radically in the 21st century. In the 19th and 20th century, communist parties and Marxist–Leninist states varied on LGBTQ rights; some Western and Eastern parties were among the first political parties to support LGBTQ rights, while others, especially the Soviet Union and some of its Eastern Bloc members, harshly persecuted people of the LGBTQ community.
Jasbir K. Puar is an American professor at Rutgers University. Her most recent book is The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability (2017). Puar is the author of award-winning Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (2007). She has written on South Asian diasporic cultural production in the United States, United Kingdom and Trinidad, LGBT tourism, terrorism studies, surveillance studies, biopolitics and necropolitics, disability and debilitation, theories of intersectionality, affect, and assemblage; animal studies and posthumanism, homonationalism, pinkwashing, and the Palestinian territories.
Historically speaking, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people have not been given equal treatment and rights by both governmental actions and society's general opinion. Much of the intolerance for LGBTQ individuals come from lack of education around the LGBTQ community, and contributes to the stigma that results in same-sex marriage being legal in few countries (31) and persistence of discrimination, such as in the workplace.
Racism is a concern for many in the Western lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) communities, with members of racial, ethnic, and national minorities reporting having faced discrimination from other LGBT people.
LGBT migration is the movement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people around the world or within one country. LGBT individuals choose to migrate so as to escape discrimination, bad treatment and negative attitudes due to their sexuality, including homophobia and transphobia. These people are inclined to be marginalized and face socio-economic challenges in their home countries. Globally and domestically, many LGBT people attempt to leave discriminatory regions in search of more tolerant ones.
The following outline offers an overview and guide to LGBTQ topics:
Pinkwashing, also known as rainbow-washing, is the strategy of deploying messages that are superficially sympathetic towards the LGBTQ community for ends having little or nothing to do with LGBTQ equality or inclusion, including LGBT marketing.
Rainbow capitalism is the involvement of capitalism, corporate capitalism, and consumerism in appropriating and profiting from the LGBT movement. It developed in the 20th and 21st centuries as the LGBT community became more accepted in society and developed sufficient purchasing power, known as pink money. Early rainbow capitalism was limited to gay bars and gay bathhouses, though it expanded to most industries by the early-21st century.
In Canada, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender (LGBT) or Gender and Sexual Minority (GSM) refugees and asylum-seekers are those who make refugee claims to Canada due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Scholarship on nationalism and gender explores the processes by which gender affects and is impacted by the development of nationalism. Sometimes referred to as "gendered nationalism," gender and nationalism describes the phenomena whereby conceptions of the state or nation, including notions of citizenship, sovereignty, or national identity contribute to or arise in relation to gender roles.
Liberal homophobia is the acceptance of homosexuality as long as it remains hidden. It is a type of homophobia in which, despite acceptance of sexual diversity, prejudices and stereotypes that marginalize or underestimate LGBTQ people are perpetuated.
