LGBTQ+ Asylum Claimants as Intimate Citizens and the Rise of Homonationalism: Transnational Intersections of Memory, Place and Media
Authors: Pullen, C.
Conference: ASEN Conference 2024: Nationalism and Memory
Dates: 9-11 April 2024
Abstract:LGBTQ+ asylum claimants appear stateless, as the homeland nation state often appears as a site of historical trauma, persecution, and vulnerability, while the desired new homeland too can be experienced as an alien landscape, even if it appears to offer rescue, harbour and potentially salvation. However, when identifying with new homelands LGBTQ+ asylum claimants, often exhibit a sense of ‘intimate/sexual citizenship’ (see Evans 1993; Plummer 2003), framing emotional senses of belonging, that appear as transnational, hybridising culture (see Bhabha 1994). Despite this, the rise of ‘homonationalism’ (Puar 2013) a biopolitical shift that encodes LGBTQ+ rights in many western constitutions (and may be co-opted by the right wing), problematizes notions of citizenship equality for non-western queer citizens.
Drawing evidence from interviews with LGBTQ+ asylum claimants who engaged with regional NGOs in the UK (Pullen and Franklin 2023), and framing documentary media representations within Flee (Jonas Poher-Rasmussen 2021) and Jihad for Love (Parvez Sharma 2008), this paper frames the narrative construction of memory for the LGBTQ+ asylum claimant, in defining their citizenship identity. While the data from the interviews and the representational world of the documentary media texts, appear to frame a transnational ideology, in creating a holistic vision of the LGBTQ+ asylum claimant, we are presented not so much with a transformative hybrid vision of citizenship, but more of a fluid reality. A sense of being and becoming (Deleuze 1994) is present, counterpointing a nostalgia for the homeland in contrast to their new lived reality, while critiquing the spectre of homonationalism.
Source: Manual