Instrumentally Inclusive: The Political Psychology of Homonationalism

Abstract

Can nativist attitudes condition support for LGBT+ rights? The sustained advance in pro-LGBT+ attitudes in the West often contrasts with the greening of anti-immigrant sentiment propagated by nativist supply-side actors. We argue that these parallel trends are causally connected, theorizing that exposure to sexually conservative ethnic out-groups can provoke an instrumental increase in LGBT+ inclusion, particularly among those hostile toward immigration. Leveraging experiments in Britain and Spain, we provide causal evidence that citizens strategically liberalize their levels of support for LGBT+ rights when opponents of these measures are from the ethnic out-group. In a context where sexuality-based liberalism is nationalized, increasing tolerance toward LGBT+ citizens is driven by a desire among nativist citizens to socially disidentify from those out-groups perceived as inimical to these nationalized norms. Our analyses provide a critical interpretation of positive trends in LGBT+ tolerance with instrumental liberalism masking lower rates of genuine shifts in LGBT+ inclusion.

LGB+ identity and its implications for the policy positions of parliamentary candidates

“…Against the background of the finding that LGB candidates are perceived as more liberal than heterosexual candidates (Loepp and Redman, 2022;Magni and Reynolds, 2021), and sexuality thus functions as a kind of cueing mechanism for voters (Magni and Reynolds, 2018), this assumption could already prove to be too hasty. Preliminary findings provide evidence that parties of the radical right actively solicit votes from sexual minorities and elect members of this group to the highest party officesinstrumentally motivated to create sentiment against other minorities such as Muslims or trans* individuals (Magni and Reynolds, 2023;Turnbull-Dugarte and López Ortega, 2023). It is therefore all the more important to shed light on the question whether LGB politicians tend towards more progressive attitudes than heterosexual ones and if there is variation across parties with differing ideological profiles.…”

“…Drawing on these lines of reasoning, we expect not only that candidates for public office who identify themselves as LGB follow the ideological positions of LGB individuals on the socio-cultural and the socio-economic dimension, but also see themselves as more progressive and socio-economically less conservative than their respective partybecause of an intrinsic 2 Some recent studies indicate that advocacy for LGB rights can be linked to ethnocentric perspectives, potentially masking anti-immigrant sentiments (Turnbull-Dugarte and Ortega, 2023;Hunklinger and Ajanović, 2022;Wurthmann, 2023a;Spierings, 2021). This suggests that the progressive policy positions among LGB individuals on socio-cultural issues might exclude issues related to migration and integration, becauseaccording to this perspectivepermissive migration policies would endanger the progressive achievements of Western liberal democracies on the acceptance of homosexuality.…”