Homonormativity
Homonormativity describes the adaptation of lesbian women and gay men to heteronormativity .
The term goes back, among other things, to Lisa Duggan's essay The New Homonormativity: The Sexual Politics of Neoliberalism (2002). Duggan sees homonormativity as a neoliberal strategy to fit into a status quo, to confirm existing power structures and thus to achieve the political normalization of homosexual lifestyles. Homosexuals orientate themselves on classic ideas of masculinity and femininity and strive in their political activities primarily for ideals of heterosexual lifestyles (marriage, children, home ownership, monogamy), instead of politically challenging and questioning current social norms and institutions. According to Duggan, gay and lesbian lifestyles are being depoliticized and restricted to privacy and consumption. Duggan criticizes homonormativity leading to the erosion of political engagement once the LGBT movement achieved its primary goals of same-sex marriage and the opportunity to serve in the military.
Jack Halberstam understands the term to also mean the demarcation of gay and lesbian identities and the exclusion of queer lifestyles and identities that do not fit into traditional role models that are assigned to their bodies according to gender. This leads to the marginalization of other queer identities, e.g. B. Transgender , and a split within the LGBT movement. Julia Serano criticizes homonormativity as a strategy of the LGBT movement to try to give the impression that apart from their sexual orientation they are “like everyone else” by excluding the “most deviant”.