Homonationalism and the “Vorzeigehomo”
Alice Weidel, co-chair of the AfD (‘AfD Bundesparteitag’ by Olaf Kosinsky is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 DE)
When thinking of the AfD (“Alternative für Deutschland”), Germany’s right-wing populist party, one would not picture openly homosexual politicians as some of their most prominent party members. Most AfD politicians collect labels ending in ‘-phobia’ as if they were competing for the prize of the most ‘-phobic’ politician. Yet, the inner-party platform “Homosexuelle in der AfD” was founded to represent the party’s numerous queer members. It seems baffling that the AfD’s right-wing beliefs on social issues are compatible with homosexual identity.
Alice Weidel, co-chair of the AfD, has been in a civil union with a woman for the past 20 years, during which the pair have raised two children together. Mirko Welsch, speaker for the “Homosexuelle in der AfD”, campaigned for the AfD’s policies that aimed to reduce queer people’s liberty and education. Jana Schneider, representative of the “Junge Alternative”, the party’s even more extreme youth wing, identifies as lesbian and has no problem aligning her sexuality with her political views.
The solution to this paradoxical existence lies in an ancient rhetoric: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Welsch reports that when the inner-party platform was first founded, it was met with scepticism and resistance, until the AfD realised that it shared their support of the heterosexual core family model, their opposition to same-sex marriage and, above all, their Islamophobia.
The AfD operates on a very simple equation: Immigrant = Muslim = homophobic and misogynistic. While Suella Braverman accuses immigrants of pretending to be gay in order to receive asylum, the AfD takes on the exact opposite view, accusing every immigrant of severe homophobia and misogyny. In this, they employ a strategy similar to Marine Le Pen during France’s presidential elections in 2017. She too demonised the Islamic culture and painted Muslims as an inherently homophobic community in order to win the support of homosexual voters.
The party’s queer members are more than enthusiastic to generalise homophobic hate crimes committed by immigrants to the entire Muslim community but refuse to apply the same generalisation to all members of the AfD, although more than a few of its politicians caused homophobic scandals.
To name only two examples of this, AfD-politician Kay Nerstheimer called the gay and lesbian community a “degenerated species” in a Facebook comment. In the parliament of Saxony-Anhalt, a debate about countries that punish homosexuality by imprisonment was interrupted by AfD-politician Andreas Gehlmann, who yelled that Germany should follow suit.
In separate interviews, both Jana Schneider and Mirko Welsch reduce these instances of homophobia to the views of a few individuals within the party. While they condemn the statements made by their party-peers, they do not admit to the party’s programme containing underlying tones of homophobia. Schneider even argues that the AfD is an inclusive party, saying that she herself has never been attacked personally.
Yet, the AfD has been enthusiastically campaigning against inclusive sex education in schools. They criticise that instead of raising children to be ‘tolerant’ of the LGBTQI+ community, schools are raising kids to be ‘accepting’ of them. Additionally, they spoke out in favour of banning readings by trans people of aimed at explaining gender and sexuality in kindergarten. The party fears that these readings cause children confusion about their own gender and views them as an instrumentalization of sexual minorities to ‘turn’ (exact wording: “umerziehen”) them.
Under the umbrella term ‘early sexualisation’ (“Frühsexualisierung”), Welsch expresses his opposition to inclusive sex education. However, the queer members of the AfD remain silent about whether such education would have benefited their own journey to labelling and accepting their homosexuality.
Another main party policy that seems irreconcilable with homosexual identity is the AfD’s objection to same-sex couples’ rights to marriage and adoption. In Germany, queer couples are allowed to live in a civil partnership but plans to allow them to marry were heavily protested by both heterosexual and homosexual AfD-politicians. When same-sex marriage became legally possible in 2017, the party began campaigning for a removal of the right to marry not even a year later. When asked about these protests, Schneider said that to her as a lesbian, the difference between civil partnership and marriage was irrelevant. Similarly, Welsch stated that he was in favour of civil partnership, “but does it have to be marriage?”
Regarding adoption, Schneider shares her party’s belief that a child needs a mother and a father as gender role models. She says that, while she is unsure about having children herself, she knows that she could not replace a father and that it is a queer person’s responsibility to make sure a child has everything it needs – a father and a mother included. However, she does not comment on the AfD’s co-chair, Alice Weidel, who is raising two sons with her female partner. Weidel herself is determined to keep her private life as removed from the public eye as possible and has yet to declare whether, as a lesbian mother, her own opinions on same-sex couples adopting children differ from that of her party.
Weidel position as one of the party’s most prominent politicians could be out of genuine acceptance of her queer identity. Unfortunately, it is more likely that her lesbian lifestyle, while being tolerated by her party-peers, is being used to promote the party amongst the conservative wings of the LGBTQI+ community. Her token homosexuality is used to cover the homophobic statements made by AfD members and the policies restricting queer liberties frequently campaigned for by the party.
So, how can the queer members of the AfD align their sexual identity with their party’s values? While queerness and conservatism are not mutually exclusive, they have to reduce their identity to a “Vorzeigehomo” – a good, conservative homosexual, whose viewpoints align perfectly with that of the AfD.
Homosexual and heterosexual AfD politicians are united by a common enemy: Immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants. This gives straight individuals in the party the power to turn a blind eye to homosexuality and queer individuals to do the same to blatant homophobia.
Still, seeing members of the LGBTQI+ community campaign against their own right to marry, adopt children or receive inclusive sex education conveys a feeling of hypocrisy. Maybe it is internalised homophobia? Maybe it is their desire to fit in with the party of their choice? Whatever it is that causes them to mould their personality into what the AfD considers a good homosexual, it does not benefit the LGBTQI+ community in the slightest.