Description
Discussion about right-wing narratives and appeals to LGBTQ+ communities have been primarily related to ‘homonationalism’ (Puar 2007) and ‘Pinkwashing’. Further, traditional understandings of the relation between LGBTQ+ communities and the radical right repeatedly evidence discrimination and violence towards the former by the latter. However, changes within the LGBTQ+ community in Western nations is causing this to shift. This paper demonstrates how certain ideational aspects of radical right narratives are appealing to the LGBTQ+ community, particularly to cisgender white gay males. These narratives question traditional understandings of a ‘natural alliance’ between gay people and the left, who are accused of betraying gay people by purportedly enabling mass immigration of Muslims and ostensibly ‘promoting’ Islam which is, apparently, set on destroying the LGBTQ+ community. The radical right consequently positions itself as protecting gay people. This further coincides with changing gender politics among Western males (Blee 2012) and fractures within the LGBTQ+ community which the radical right exploits. We argue that this weaponisation of gay rights against Muslims is parallel to radical right appropriations of Jewish solidarity, Christianity, and some forms of feminism as a strategy to legitimise and ‘mainstream’ (Miller-Idriss 2017) radical right concepts into Western politics. We analyse official social media communications and the speeches of prominent figures in these movements at several UK rallies. We conclude that this is a phenomenon relatively early in development and must be watched by academics and policymakers.
