GLOBAL QUEER POLITICS Paradoxical Right-Wing Sexual Politics in Europe Edited by Cornelia Möser · Jennifer Ramme · Judit Takács Global Queer Politics Series Editors Jordi Díez, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada Sonia Corrêa, Brazilian Interdisciplinary Association for AIDS (ABIA), Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil David Paternotte, Department of Political Science, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium Matthew Waites, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK The Global Queer Politics book series is a new outlet for research on political and social processes that contest dominant heteronormative orders in both legal and policy frames and cultural formations. It presents studies encompassing all aspects of queer politics, understood intheexpansivetermsofmuchactivismasaddressingthepoliticsofsexualorientation,gender identity and expression and intersex status, as well as non-heteronormative sexualities and genders more widely – including emerging identities such as asexual, pansexual, or non-binary. As struggles over violence, human rights and inequalities have become more prominent in world politics, this series provides a forum to challenge retrenchments of inequalities, and new formsofcontestation,criminalizationandpersecution,situatedinwidergeopolitics.Particularly welcomeareworksattentivetomultipleinequalities,suchasrelatedtoclassandcaste,raceand ethnicity,nationalism,religion,disabilityandage,imperialismandcolonialism.Global,regional, transnational, comparative and national studies are welcome, but that speak to international processes. Books in the Global Queer Politics series will initially be published in hardback and ebook formats, and are made available in paperback after two years. Ebook package subscriptions for librariesinlessdevelopedcountriesareinaccessiblescaledratesrelativetothesizeandlocation of institutions, enabling free access to library patrons. Additionally these package subscriptions makeitpossibleforlibrarypatronstopurchasepersonalpaperbackeditionsofeachbookwhen it is released, through the MyCopy scheme. The Global Queer Politics book series welcomes: All academic disciplines and approaches that can contribute to the study of politics, including, but not limited to, international relations, political theory, sociology, socio-legal studies, contemporary history, social policy, development, public policy, cultural studies, media studies and gender and sexuality studies. Methodologieswhichmayincludecomparativeworksandcasestudieswithrelevanttransna- tional dimensions, and analyses of global processes. Research from authors who have activist, governmental and international experience, as well as work that can contribute to the global debate over LGBTIQ rights with perspectives from the Global South.’ Editors Jordi Díez, University of Guelph, Canada: [email protected] Sonia Corrêa, Brazilian Interdisciplinary Association for AIDS, Brazil: [email protected] David Paternotte, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium: [email protected] Matthew Waites, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom: [email protected] Advisory Board Sa’ed Atshan, Swarthmore College, United States Kelly Kollman, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom Travis Kong, Hong Kong University, China Arvind Narrain, Alternative Law Forum, India Stella Nyanzi, Makerere University, Uganda Hakan Seckinelgin, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom Shanon Shah, Inform, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom María-Amelia Viteri, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador/Fordham University, United States Cai Wilkinson, Deakin University, Australia More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/15246 · · Cornelia Möser Jennifer Ramme Judit Takács Editors Paradoxical Right-Wing Sexual Politics in Europe Editors Cornelia Möser Jennifer Ramme Center for Sociological and Political Social and Cultural Sciences Research of Paris European University Viadrina Paris, France Frankfurt, Germany Judit Takács Centre for Social Sciences Budapest, Hungary ISSN 2569-1317 ISSN 2569-1309 (electronic) Global Queer Politics ISBN 978-3-030-81340-6 ISBN 978-3-030-81341-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81341-3 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such namesareexemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreefor general use. Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinforma- tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeen made.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmaps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Jennifer Ramme/2019 This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Series Editors Preface ’ After decades of academic silence, rising opposition to gender and sexual equalities, in Europe and beyond, is receiving sustained attention by scholars on sexual politics. Over the last several years, we have observed an impressive blossoming of publications, conference calls and research projects by researchers and practitioners. They all aim to keep track of a phenomenon that is constantly evolving, to add new case studies, to gather new empirical data and to provide novel concepts and analytical frames. While these issues were hardly discussed in European scholarship five years ago, they have become central to the field. Thisbookmakesavaluablecontributiontothisconversation.Notonly does it take part of the emerging interest in the dark side of contempo- rary sexual politics, but it also takes stock of previous debates, thereby widening the scope of the discussion. Indeed, instead of focusing on one form of opposition, it sets apart one type of actor that plays a key role in these controversies. More specifically, it investigates how the Right has addressedsexualpoliticsincontemporaryEurope.Thischoicecontributes to shifting the debate in at least two significant ways. A few years ago, debates on homonationalism, understood as a new form of sexual nationalism intimately connected to a wider acceptance of (male) homosexuality, dominated the academic literature. Rapidly, the co-optation of women’s rights was added, as suggested by the notion of femonationalism. At the same time as such literature has soughttochallengeethnocentrism,racismandcolonialitiesinmainstream v vi SERIESEDITORS’PREFACE Western political discourses, this conversation has often been ethnocen- tric, building theories with universal pretentions on the basis of a few empirical cases representing selected Western states. Yet the conversation has inspired a renewed interest in the study of the ways in which sexu- alityandnationalisminteractandtheentrenchmentofsexualpoliticsinto projects of national and imperial construction. By focusing on right-wing sexual politics, Cornelia Möser, Jennifer Ramme and Judit Takács connect the current interest in anti-gender campaigns with older debates on homo- and femonationalism. This shift allowsthemtohighlightthatright-wingactorsengagewithsexualpolitics indiverseandpotentiallycontradictoryways,bringingthemtothecrucial idea of “paradoxes”. They also show that specific actors combine various forms of sexual nationalisms in the same political project and modulate them to target different audiences. This insight leads them to conclude that these paradoxes matter. As they argue, these paradoxes should not be read as “a sign of weakness but rather [as] an essential component contributing to the political success of right-wing parties, organizations and argumentations”. In brief, such paradoxes are “a strategic tool in forging their strength” (p. X). Atthesametime,thisbookexploitsthefuzzinessofthenotionof“the Right” at its best. While the vagueness of this term makes it potentially problematic on an empirical level, it allows analysts to explore intel- lectual constellations and transnational circulations. It points towards a specific set of ideas and the ways in which they are constantly reconfig- ured by the actors grasping them; such ideas are heavily influenced by the specificities of the contexts in which they are deployed. It also digs into the underpinnings of right-wing ideologies, their entrenchment into nationalism,racism,(hetero)sexismorfamilismandtheirvariationsacross borders. Finally, by not placing the spotlight on the far-right or on right- wing populism (another vague and problematic notion), it sheds light on the circulations of ideas within the Right and contributes to a better understanding of the internal reconfigurations of this ideological family in Europe. For these reasons, we think that this volume is an important contri- bution to the study of contemporary politics in Europe. Thanks to its comparativeperspectiveandthediscussionofawiderangeofcasesinthe region, it overcomes the perils of methodological nationalism. It adds under-investigated cases to the literature, such as Ireland, Portugal or Sweden. Finally, it makes the German- and French-speaking scholarship SERIESEDITORS’PREFACE vii on the topic more widely available to the English-speaking international readership. In brief, this book shows that, far from side issues, gender and sexuality are crucial battlefields and “building blocks” for right-wing politics. Guelph, Canada Jordi Díez Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Sonia Corrêa Brussels, Belgium David Paternotte Glasgow, UK Matthew Waites Acknowledgments The cover photo was taken on 30 March 2019 by Jennifer Ramme. It shows a “messy wall of love” at the entrance of the house where Romeo and Juliette supposedly met in secret. It was taken on the day the World Congress of Families held their meeting, while some 100,000 transfem- inist Non Una di Meno protesters took over the streets of Verona, the “city of love”. ix Contents 1 Paradoxes That Matter: Introducing Critical Perspectives on Right-Wing Sexual Politics in Europe 1 Cornelia Möser, Jennifer Ramme, and Judit Takács 2 “We Don’t Want Rainbow Terror”: Religious and Far-Right Sexual Politics in Poland and Spain 25 Monica Cornejo-Valle and Jennifer Ramme 3 NothingfromThem:LGBTQI+RightsandPortuguese Exceptionalism in Troubled Times 61 Ana Cristina Santos 4 TheSexualPoliticsofNationalSecularismsinSweden and France: A Cross-Confessional Comparison 87 Cornelia Möser and Eva Reimers 5 Right-Wing Sexual Politics and “Anti-gender” Mobilization in Italy: Key Features and Latest Developments 119 Luca Trappolin 6 Fearofthe“NewHumanBeing”:OntheIntersection of Antisemitism, Antifeminism and Nationalism in the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) 145 Karin Stögner xi