Between Two Ills: Homonationalism, Gender Ideology and the Case of Denmark

This article draws on Mouffe’s theory of agonistic democracy and critique of hegemonic consensuses to examine whether and how homonationalism can come to fuel antagonisms levelled against the gender+ movements. Using discourse analysis, the article analyses the case study of Denmark, where in 2018 the anti-gender campaign openly challenged the government’s homonationalist discourse. The analysis confirms that the government’s homonationalist discourse establishes modes of exclusion from the national imaginary, which the anti-gender actors contest by articulating an antagonism levelled against the gender+ movements’ attributed queer ideology. The antagonising potential of homonationalist discursive practices is further substantiated by pointing to the ways in which the government’s discourse reinforces a liberal idea of citizenship that gives priority to liberal rights over the democratic values of popular sovereignty and participation. Conversely, the anti-gender discourse gives priority to popular sovereignty at the expense of gender minority rights. Both the governments’ and the anti-gender actors’ discourses are thus found to fall short in terms of the prescripts of an agonistic public sphere. The article therefore argues for an abandonment of homonationalist discursive practices, when manifesting as a hegemonic consensus, which reinforces a liberal idea of citizenship to install a plural agonistic public sphere concerning sexual and gender minority politics.