Gender/sexuality, Race, Homonationalism

Exporting human rights. Homonationalism, historical discourses of the utopian North and the creation of a gay paradise

As the LGBTI+ rights movement in Iceland has gained various successes in the last three decades, its achievements have increasingly been used to create a positive image of the country. This emphasis has increased, if anything, as the tourism industry has become more dominant within the country. The idea of Iceland as a queer paradise, or more particularly a gay paradise, has become prominent partly because it is congruent with the picture painted of Iceland in books, documentaries and newspaper and magazine articles in the last few centuries. In this instance, it is noteworthy that the image creators have begun using a marginalized group that was, until recently, demonized and ostracized.

The subject of this article is the gay paradise as it appears in the dominant discourse, with an emphasis on the City of Reykjavík’s 2012 bid to host a large LGBTI+ sporting event, the World Outgames. The article places the gay paradise in a historical context by examining historical discourses surrounding utopias in the North and contemporary transnational homonationalist discourses. In the past 10–15 years queer theorists have noticed that lesbians and gay men seem to have gained access to the nation. They are no longer seen as “other”, foreign and abnormal, while other marginalized groups have taken their place, notably Muslims and people from the Middle East. These two different discourses have facilitated the emergence of ideas like that of the Icelandic gay paradise, which seem natural on the surface but are riddled with contradictions. Not only does this paradigm erase queer Muslims and queer people from the Middle East, but it also excludes other queer people, for instance, trans people, intersex people, and bi-, pan and asexual people. The Icelandic gay utopia bears witness to a greater quality of life for a historically marginalized group but it is also centralizes one minority group at the expense of others, like so many discourses surrounding homosexuality have done in the past.

***
Að flytja út mannréttindi. Hinsegin paradísin Ísland í ljósi samkynhneigðrar þjóðernishyggju og sögulegra orðræðna um fyrirmyndarsamfélög í norðri

Samfara stórstígum framförum í réttindabaráttu hinsegin fólks á síðustu
þremur áratugum hefur færst í vöxt að réttindi hinsegin fólks á Íslandi séu notuð til þess að skapa Íslandi jákvæða ímynd. Þessi áhersla hefur síst minnkað með auknu vægi ferðaþjónustunnar í landinu. Hugmyndin um Ísland sem hinsegin paradís, samkynhneigða paradís nánar tiltekið, hefur því fengið byr undir báða vængi enda er hún er að mörgu leyti í samræmi við þá mynd sem dregin hefur verið upp af Íslandi í bókum, blaðagreinum og heimildarmyndum síðustu aldirnar. Þó vekur athygli að ímyndarsmiðirnir nota í þessu tilviki jaðarsettan hóp sem þar til nýlega var úthrópaður og meðlimum hans útskúfað úr samfélaginu.

Hér er fjallað um Ísland sem samkynhneigða paradís eins og sú hugmynd birtist í ríkjandi orðræðu og sérstök áhersla lögð á umsókn Reykjavíkurborgar um að halda stórt hinsegin íþróttamót, World Outgames, árið 2017. Paradísin er sett í sögulegt samhengi og skoðuð bæði í ljósi sögulegra orðræðna um fyrirmyndarsamfélög í norðri og þverþjóðlegra orðræðna um samkynhneigða þjóðernishyggju (e. homonationalism). Á síðustu 10–15 árum hafa fræðimenn veitt því athygli að samkynhneigðir tilheyri ekki lengur hópi „hinna“, það er hinna framandi og afbrigðilegu, heldur teljist nú í hópi „okkar“. Þeir hafi með öðrum orðum fengið aðgang að þjóðinni en múslimar og fólk frá Miðausturlöndum hafi tekið þeirra stað sem „hinir“. Saman búa þessar tvær orðræður til farveg fyrir hugmyndir eins og samkynhneigða fyrirmyndarlandið Ísland. Það fyrirbæri er þó óneitanlega mótsagnakennt,
enda má finna hinsegin fólk meðal múslima og Miðausturlandabúa og einnig skilur innlimun góðra samkynhneigðra borgara í þjóðina annað hinsegin fólk eftir utan þjóðarímyndarinnar, svo sem trans fólk, intersex fólk og tví-, pan- og eikynhneigða. Þessi jákvæða ímynd af samkynhneigða fyrirmyndarlandinu er þannig birtingarmynd breyttra tíma en þó er hún einnig takmarkandi og hampar ákveðnum hópi á kostnað annarra líkt og svo margar orðræður um samkynhneigð hafa gert í gegnum tíðina.

By centralizing the experiences of seven, urban, self-identified Two-Spirit Indigenous people in Toronto, this paper addresses the settler-colonial complexities that arise within contemporary queer politics: how settler colonialism has seeped into Pride Toronto’s contemporary Queer politics to normalize White queer settler subjectivities and disavow Indigenous Two-Spirit subjectivities. Utilizing Morgensen’s settler homonationalism, the authors underscore that contemporary Queer politics in Canada rely on the eroticization of Two-Spirit subjectivities, Queer settler violence, and the production of (White) Queer narratives of belonging that simultaneously promote the inclusion and erasure of Indigenous presence. Notwithstanding Queer settler-colonial violence, Two-Spirit peoples continue to engage in settler resistance by taking part in Pride Toronto and problematizing contemporary manifestations of settler homonationalism. Findings highlight the importance of challenging the workings of settler colonialism within contemporary Queer politics in Canada, and addressing the tenuous involvements of Indigenous TwoSpirit peoples within Pride festivals. The article challenges non-Indigenous Queers of color, racialized diasporic, and White, to consider the value of a future that takes seriously the conditions of settler colonialism and White supremacy.

This article tracks Jasbir Puar’s term “homonationalism” as its meaning has transformed in her scholarly work as well that of Maya Mikdashi. I argue that homonationalism has evolved from its original formulation as, in part, a critique of politics, into, in its current guise, a diagnostic of international political relations. Although this transition offers insight into the international scene, I argue that homonationalism also loses its distinctiveness as a political formation in its own right as well as its critical capacity in the process. In particular, I argue that homonationalism becomes incapable of critically
evaluating activist strategies, practices and discourses of political resistance.

La migration des lesbiennes a été très peu étudiée jusqu’à présent en France . Or, elle permet de mieux comprendre les mobilités féminines dans leur ensemble, à savoir les logiques de  l’hétéro-circulation des femmes, en éclairant les logiques classiques et protégées par l’Etat.

This paper investigates the convergence of European Union enlargement strategies and queer politics in the production of Islamophobia in Kosovo. Through a reading of recent homophobic attacks in Kosovo, it examines how the incorporation of lgbti politics into the eu enlargement assemblages generate a representational praxis of queer communities in Kosovo under threat by Muslim extremists. This paper proposes that the Europeanization of lgbti rights depoliticizes queer communities and singles them out for protection as victims of Islamic fundamentalism by creating binary and exclusionary Queer/Islam divisions that prevent the emergence of intersectional soli-darities and subjectivities such as queer and Muslim. In this context, European financed 'coming out' projects gain a new meaning in Kosovo, one where the promotion of visibility for certain queer subjects works simultaneously to expose Muslim 'extremists'. Queer acceptance in Islamophobic times, then, becomes the ultimate test of who can and cannot become European citizen. Keywords Kosovo – eu enlargement – Eastern Europe – homonationalism – Islam – queer – orientalism Queer1 political formations in Eastern Europe have increasingly become another discursive space where eu multicultural citizenship is negotiated, often at a 1 For the purpose of this article, I am using the term queer as an umbrella to include all non-heterosexual and gender-variant people.

In this thesis I explore queerness in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
utilizing historical sources, modern day texts, and interviews with members of the
community. Major events like legislative rulings and pride parades will primarily be
explored as markers of where we are in time through this essay. The goal of this
thesis is to examine the layers of history that encompass queerness in Aotearoa up to
present day. Utilizing survey results along with interviews of community members
will provide insight to the cultural norms of queerness within Wellington that may not
be easily visible otherwise. This thesis will be comprised of three main parts Queer
Aotearoa which will focus on the history of queerness in Aotearoa up to present day.
Subject Interviews and Analysis which is a condensed version of the transcribed
interviews along with analysis of those interviews which includes the consumption of
America media, utilizing social media as their primary form of social interactions,
and coming out to friends before family members. The final chapter is
Homonationalism in Wellington where I explore nationalistic tendencies within queer
communities and events like pride.

What’s “human” in the human? What makes a living being a human being? In case of doubt, who decides whether a living being is a human being? A liberal political culture based on the value of human rights cannot avoid these questions. This article will use different interpretative frames (Thomas Hobbes, Michel Foucault, Leo Bersani, Giorgio Agamben, Judith Butler, Lee Edelman, Jasbir Puar) in order to give account of the permanence of a sovereign decision on the human in the biopolitical governance of the present. The condition of African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex asylum seekers in Europe is exemplary of this. Persecuted in their countries for their sexual orientation or gender identity, in many cases they cross the Mediterranean on makeshift boats to land – twist of fate – on the same islands where Italian Fascism used to confine homosexual men. There they are “received” in camps for illegal immigrants where their full humanity, denied by their countries of origin, will be taken into exam by a commission. Only if recognized as authentic members of a sexual minority, they will benefit the totality of human rights in Europe. Otherwise, they risk to be forced away from Europe – and from humanity. Far from being a voyage of hope from barbarity to modernity, their journey from Africa to Europe turns into an archaic ordeal.

Este artículo intenta contribuir a visibilizar algunas experiencias de lesbianas feministas racializadas y blancas, a partir del final de los años 90, frente al racismo del movimiento lésbico y al endurecimiento nacionalista de las políticas migratorias francesas. Propone para describir la situación actual y el accionar de los nuevos grupos, los conceptos de heterocirculación de las mujeres y de lesbonacionalismo.