Abstract
Drawing on recent transnational queer theory, the article presents a reading of two newspaper-articles about the Danish LGBT parade in 2009. The articles represent the dominant discourse about gay and lesbian citizenship.
The readings show that the contemporary mainstreaming of gay and lesbian identity is intertwined with the national narrative about the special Danish permissiveness. Using the concept of homonationalism (Puar 2007) and Gregory’s rethinking of Said’s concept of imaginary geographies (Gregory 2004, 2007) the readings highlight how the homonormative inclusion of gay and lesbian identities into citizenship and recognition – into the national Danish ‘we’ – is being operationalized to construct and exclude a pathologized and suspicious immigrant population – the ‘them’. This imagined population is casted to oppose the national narrative and thereby is represented as a danger to gay and lesbian citizenship and the national narrative about Danishness.
The readings show that the contemporary mainstreaming of gay and lesbian identity is intertwined with the national narrative about the special Danish permissiveness. Using the concept of homonationalism (Puar 2007) and Gregory’s rethinking of Said’s concept of imaginary geographies (Gregory 2004, 2007) the readings highlight how the homonormative inclusion of gay and lesbian identities into citizenship and recognition – into the national Danish ‘we’ – is being operationalized to construct and exclude a pathologized and suspicious immigrant population – the ‘them’. This imagined population is casted to oppose the national narrative and thereby is represented as a danger to gay and lesbian citizenship and the national narrative about Danishness.
| Original language | Danish |
|---|---|
| Journal | Lambda Nordica |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Pages (from-to) | 41-68 |
| Number of pages | 28 |
| ISSN | 1100-2573 |
| Publication status | Published - 2011 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Humanities