QueerInAmsterdam

QueerIntersectional is an alternative platform for critical voices on homonationalism with a particular focus on the Netherlands. It is created against the ongoing project of homonationalism and gay imperialism. This blog is a direct response to the 2011 conference “Sexual Nationalisms” held at the University of Amsterdam on the 27^th and 28^th of January. The local queer community needs a platform to discuss issues of homonationalism, moving away from the exclusivist platform proposed by the conference.

QueerIntersectional is an alternative space for critical engagements with the (local) queer community. QueerIntersectional speaks out against the abuse of LGTB rights that cater to an exclusivist, racist and neoliberal agenda in which the Netherlands is presented as a tolerant and progressive country because of its engagements with these gay rights. I worry about the use of this image that is created to segregate minorities. This development hurts an intersectional politics based on the struggle against racism, sexism, homophobia and classism as inseparable phenomena.

As a white queer feminist I refuse to be tokenized and co-opted by the discriminatory and neoliberal (LGTB) politics of the Dutch government and the assimilationist politics demanded from well known LGTB-organizations like the COC. This by no means implies that I am dejecting myself from debates on homophobia. QueerIntersectional demands a more careful analysis of systems of oppression that seem to be firmly rooted in and maintained by the contemporary political climate. We need to constantly and critically realign ourselves. We need to think about who the “we” in these debates is. QueerIntersectional demands the space to do so.

This blog is by no means created to overshadow work done on homonationalism in other cities, in other places. This blog is merely an attempt to start a different online debate in and about (but not exclusively) the Netherlands.