Global Queer Agonism: Normative Theory of the European Union in Times of Dissensus Over LGBT Equality

Abstract

In times of heightened dissensus over the liberal democratic order, normative theories of the EU need to adapt to be able to capture how the promotion and enforcement of values go hand in hand with their contestation. Research on global LGBT politics has shown that the promotion and enforcement of LGBT equality make possible and shape the anti-LGBT dissent it seeks to combat. Understood as a paradox of sexual integration, this article introduces a normative approach called Global Queer Agonism that utilises agonistic political theory and queer theory in assessments of the legitimacy of the EU's efforts to promote and enforce LGBT equality. Structured by two agonistic concepts, consensus and remainders, and supplemented by the theories of homonationalism, homocolonialism, homocapitalism and the concept of homonormativity, Global Queer Agonism puts into practice a theoretical allyship between agonism and queer theory in the normative assessment of the EU's global role.