Post-Homophobic Imaginaries amongst the Far-Right in Germany and Switzerland

Abstract

Alongside violently opposing gender and sexual equalities, far-right parties in Western Europe have increasingly denied their political positions as homophobic. This article explores how far-right party actors in Germany and Switzerland actively use liberal discourses to advance reactionary gender and sexual politics beyond outright opposition. It queries how party actors consolidate hetero-patriarchal ideological commitments with a desire to include homosexual subjects within the parties’ respective ideologies. This study argues that reactionary actors in Germany and Switzerland are highly adaptive to the ‘post-homophobic’ discursive terrain they navigate. In doing so, openly gay and lesbian actors within far-right parties and their allies are not operating in a vacuum. They can draw on an expansive archive of mainstream political discourses, including normative ideas about the neoliberal family, a gendered economy of reproduction and the potent construction of homophobic immigrants. Our analysis thus demonstrates that liberal ideas around sexuality are not always overtly opposed to but also actively invested in for reactionary gains.

Keywords

• Homophobia
• homonationalism
• homonormativity
• Switzerland
• Germany