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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 23:6 (2024) ► pp.808–830

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Political homophobia

The rise of anti-queer rhetoric in Indonesia and Turkey

ORCiD logo with link | Humboldt University Berlin
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Published online: 9 January 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.22050.sch
Abstract
This article comparatively analyses the rise of anti-LGBT rhetoric in Indonesia and Turkey in the 2010s and early 2020s. In both countries, periods of greater public visibility of LGBTQ+ people in the early 2000s were followed by waves of severe anti-LGBT rhetoric, violence, and legal measures. This analysis focusses on the rhetoric that conservative state and non-state actors use to other non-heteronormative people and to exclude them from the nation or “the people”. My main argument is that state and non-state actors conduct othering of LGBTQ+ people and construct them as dangerous threats to the nation and to the structure of the family. The anti-LGBT narratives are integrated into larger conspiracy narratives of foreign powers undermining the nation.
Article outline
  • 1.Political homophobia: The rhetoric of exclusion in the cases of Indonesia and Turkey
  • 2.Approach and methodology
  • 3.Political background and literature overview
  • 4.Turning the tide: Historical context and key discursive events
    • 4.1Similarities
    • 4.2Differences
    • 4.3Actor landscape
    • 4.4Covert hate speech
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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Cited by one other publication

Zhang, Ke & Huibin Zhuang
2025. In the Name of Traditions? Legitimating Homophobic Discourse in Chinese News Media. Asian Studies Review 49:4 ► pp. 887 ff. DOI logo

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