Queering Canadian Homonationalism: Limited Approaches to Foreign Homophobia

Since the 2005 legalization of same-sex marriage, lesbian and gay rights have gradually become a marker of Canadian national identity. In a prominent display of support for global queers, Canadian politicians from every level of government nearly unanimously condemned a 2013 Russian anti-gay law that was enacted ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Through the employment of Jasbir Puar’s analytic framework of homonationalism, I examine the ways in which Canada’s emerging national position on foreign homophobia, which has been informed by the mainstream LGBT rights movement, operates under the presumption that Western conceptualizations of sexuality are universally true. I contend that this approach fosters sentiments of cultural superiority, thereby dismissing the situated knowledges of foreign queers, and effectively limiting the potential for adequately challenging global homophobia.