when reading through blog posts to respond too, Tate’s ‘Using Transnationalism to deconstruct Homonationalism’ particularly drew my attention.
Reading it made me consider how nationalism shapes queer identities and the other way round. Thought this module a clear point of consideration has been transnational history also includes social movements and ideas. So how does this look like for the queer rights movement? Previously I thought this transnational queer history could only be studies through complications of underground networks across countries to globalize their ideas. However, when reading Tates blog post a new perspective emerged; ‘homonationalism’ which increasingly nationalized the rhetoric of the queer rights movement.
Upon further reflection and reading, this ‘homonationalism’ seems to do the opposite of what i assumed transnational movement of ideas did. According to Tates blog and further readings by Jasbir Paur homonationalism is the process of people using the queer right movement to ‘pink wash’ and justify other social atrocities. We see this a lot currently on the news, with white queer people on the right using thier sexual minority identity to justify their hateful views concerning fellow minorities.
This was an insightful reflection, reminding me that the spreading of ideas within transnational studies is not limited to resistance groups aiming to spread and globalize their message of tolerance but also by nationalistic rhetoric.