Constructing European Union Identity through LGBT Equality Promotion: Crises and Shifting Othering Processes in the European Union Enlargement
| Author | Koen Slootmaeckers |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929919877624 |
| Published date | 01 August 2020 |
| Date | 01 August 2020 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929919877624
Political Studies Review
2020, Vol. 18(3) 346 –361
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929919877624
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Constructing European Union
Identity through LGBT
Equality Promotion: Crises
and Shifting Othering
Processes in the
European Union
Enlargement
Koen Slootmaeckers
Abstract
The European Union sees itself as a beacon of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender friendliness
and seeks to promote these norms in its external relations. However, such identity claims and
norm promotion are inherently political and should be critically examined as such. Taking a
relational approach, this article conceptualises and examines the Othering processes within the
European Union enlargement to highlight the political nature of what is often described as a
technocratic process. Through exploring the triangulation of the European Union enlargement,
Othering processes and crises, it is argued that (1) the use of lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender rights as a measure of Europeanness is based on a longer tradition of defining the
European Union’s symbolic boundaries, but that (2) it is in perceived moments of crisis that the
European Union redraws and strengthens the boundaries between the Self and the different
types of Others through changing combinations of Othering mechanisms. Finally, the article
also argues that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights promotion is not only a tool in
constructing the European Union’s identity but also a source of an identity crisis, as is shown by
the rise of anti-gender politics.
Keywords
European Union identity, homonationalism, Othering, LGBT politics, crisis
Accepted: 2 September 2019
Department of International Politics, City, University of London, London, UK
Corresponding author:
Koen Slootmaeckers, Department of International Politics, City, University of London, Northampton Square,
London EC1V 0HB, UK.
Email: Koen.slootmaeckers@city.ac.uk
877624PSW0010.1177/1478929919877624Political Studies ReviewSlootmaeckers
research-article2019
Special Issue Article
Slootmaeckers 347
Introduction
The European Union (EU1) defines itself as a ‘community of values’ and as a beacon of
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) friendliness in the world; in the 2010s, the
protection of LGBT rights has developed into a litmus test for candidate countries’
Europeanness (Slootmaeckers, 2017a). Such identity claims, however, should be criti-
cally examined as they are the result of an underlying politics of inclusion and exclusion.
In this article, I analyse how the EU’s self-presentation of LGBT-friendliness emerged as
part of a wider agenda of (re)defining its symbolic boundaries. In particular, I am inter-
ested in the underlying processes of Othering embedded in the EU’s pro-LGBT external
policy and how these emerged as a response to crises of identity.
Although Manners’ (2002) notion of ‘normative power Europe’ can and should be
problematised, the ensuing literature provides a useful entry point into these questions.
Not only does it draw attention to how EU identity is constructed through its relationality
with the rest of the world (the Other), but also to the fact that the EU’s external relations
are ‘crucially determined by the nature of [its] international identity’ (Manners and
Whitman, 2003: 383). Engaging this literature within broader debates in International
Relations (IR) scholarship, I take EU enlargement as a case study. The EU enlargement is
the process par excellence to investigate the boundary work embedded within the EU’s
political project and how crises have contributed to such processes. This is because as a
process it does not only define and redefine the EU’s physical borders but also its sym-
bolic boundaries (Kuus, 2007). In addition, it is ever-evolving, with existing rules and
strategies for expansion continually redefined, while new ones are crystallised (Kochenov,
2008). As such, EU enlargement provides the perfect site to investigate continuity and
change in how the EU defines itself through its relations with its Others, and what role is
played by moments of crisis.
Whereas a majority of the literature on EU enlargement and LGBT rights has studied
the domestic impact of the EU on LGBT rights in new member states (e.g. Ayoub, 2016)
or LGBT politics in Eastern Europe and the Balkans (e.g. Kuhar and Takács, 2007), this
article focusses on the boundary work LGBT rights are doing within the enlargement
process. Such analysis is guided and inspired by previous work on the link between
Europe and LGBT rights (e.g. Ayoub and Paternotte, 2014) and on Europe’s symbolic
boundaries and identity (e.g. El-Tayeb, 2011), as well as by the literature drawing on
Puar’s (2007) conceptualisation of homonationalism and how LGBT rights have devel-
oped into a marker of modernity (see also Rahman, 2014). Examining the triangulation of
EU enlargement, Othering and crisis, I argue that the EU symbolic boundaries between
the Self and its different Others are consolidated, reconsidered and transformed in
response to identity crises. I demonstrate that the emergence of LGBT rights as an iden-
tity marker is both a continuation of a longer tradition of defining the EU’s symbolic
boundaries as well as a transformation of this tradition. I further highlight that the evolu-
tion of EU enlargement is not a linear progression towards normative Othering, but
instead that the EU’s boundary making is based on a pseudo-hierarchy of different Self/
Other relations and Othering processes that shift in response to different crises.
The contribution of the article is threefold. First, it contributes to the emerging litera-
ture that examines the notion of the EU’s LGBT-friendliness. My analysis demonstrates
how continuities and changes in the enlargement process have contributed to the current
LGBT-friendly identity. Second, the article speaks to the Europeanization literature and
its conceptualisation of enlargement. By investigating the Othering processes that are
embedded within EU enlargement, I highlight the political nature of a set of practices and
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