A Post-Progressive Nation: Homophobia, Islam, and the New Social Question in the Netherlands (original) (raw)

Sexual democracy raises important questions concerning political democracy and citizenship in pluralistic societies. Sexual liberty is incorporated into a cultural protectionist discourse that associates it with secularism and liberalism and pits it against the allegedly backward cultures and religions of post-immigrant citizens, especially Muslims. In commenting on the intellectual and activist travels of the concept of homonationalism, Jasbir Puar (2013, 337) argues that it is not simply a synonym for gay racism. Similarly, ‘sexual nationalist’ denotes not an identity that scholars and activists can attribute to those with whom they disagree but, rather, a political lens through which many people view political and sexual dynamics in Europe and the United States. In this chapter, I analyze the discourse of sexual nationalism in the case of the Netherlands beyond its articulation in far-right or right-wing populist neonationalism.