Lezing 'The War of Values: Political homophobia and instrumentalization of LGBTQ+ rights in Russia’s war against Ukraine'

More than ten years ago, scholars coined the concept of ‘political homophobia,’ referring to a state strategy of scapegoating an ‘other’ (LGBTQ+ people in this case) to promote social cohesion and national identity. For authoritarian regimes, political homophobia may be particularly useful in times of national economic or political crisis, under external political pressure, or amidst an international conflict. It often has nothing to do with factual societal attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people and homosexuality; instead, political homophobia puts the issue of homosexuality into the focus of public attention to distract the population from other problems.

This talk will discuss the issue of political homophobia and instrumentalization of LGBTQ+ rights in the case of Russia’s war in Ukraine that started in 2014 and culminated with the large-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. Using findings from the analysis of Russian and Ukrainian media and official statements of government officials of both countries, this talk will demonstrate how the idea of a ‘clash of values’ can be used to advocate and justify various political decisions, from the adoption of LGBTQ+ friendlier policies to the invasion of another country.