Neoliberalism and its Homophobic Discontents

This article addresses a lack in both queer and anti-neoliberal political critique: on the one hand, queer theoretical approaches neglect questions of production and class, on the other hand economical analyses all too often ignore the question of sexuality. The author argues that this blank is symptomatic for the current regime that reins the construction of sexual identities and he asks why it is so difficult to do otherwise. While religious fundamentalists, nationalist and racists unanimously reject both homosexuality and neoliberalism, official neoliberal discourse in the European Union includes tolerance of homosexuality within its list of allegedly European values. In Germany and in the Netherlands, right wing liberal policies thus give anti-homophobic struggles a nationalist and racist stance, constraining them to co-opt neoliberalism, consumerism, nationalism and racism. Finally the article discusses whether the notion of precariousness could help to link economic and sexual concerns such a way that the dialectics of individuality and risk taking in neoliberalism are illustrated.