Queering the European ‘Union of Equality’ – A research puzzle

In her opening address to the European Parliament in July 2019, Ursula von der Leyen, the first female President of the European Commission, declared her goal to build a “Union of Equality”, which was later repeated in her political guidelines. Since she took office in December 2019, von der Leyen has accorded equality a strategic and visible place on the Commission’s and the EU’s agenda: Starting in March 2020 with the release of the “Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025”, a number of “sister strategies” – including the “LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020–2025” – and action plans to combat inequalities and discrimination of different origins have been introduced. Research on the “Union of Equality”, and its wider implications for European integration and EU identity formation, is still in its infancy. Furthermore, and despite their overt claim to intersectionality, whether and how these recent initiatives tie into the EU’s commitment to safeguard diversity – an objective reflected in the motto of the EU, “United in Diversity” – has also not been studied thus far. The same applies to political developments and activities beyond these aforementioned ones, which, nonetheless, may be relevant for mainstreaming LGBTIQ* equality and diversity in the EU. These are the research gaps which I aim to address with my PhD project entitled “Queer Perspectives in the EU – SOGIESC normativity and diversity within a ‘Union of Equality’” (working title), which critically analyses the EU’s commitment and recent endeavors to promote equality and diversity in regard to sexuality/sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), and LGBTIQ* rights in particular. I explore the EU’s understanding of, and approach towards, LGBTIQ* rights and LGBTIQ* rights promotion, as well as how LGBTIQ* equality and diversity are addressed and – subsequently – mainstreamed in EU policymaking, and reveal problematic aspects that result from these practices. In my paper, I will illuminate the aforementioned research agenda and then elaborate on how to approach it. For that purpose, I will conceptualize the EU’s commitment to equality and diversity by employing the influential notion of “Normative Power Europe”. While this approach is commonly used to analyze the EU’s norm promotion in its external relations, it can also provide valuable insights into its domestic dynamics: By mainstreaming equality and diversity in its policymaking, the EU is making an active effort to diffuse particular normative beliefs. Subsequently, my core assumptions and concepts that are informed by insights from Queer Theory are elaborated, which form the baseline for a critical deconstruction of the EU’s norm-setting endeavors. I argue that the latter are permeated by particular notions of SOGIESC normativity – such as heteronormativity, “cisnormativity”, and “homonormativity” – which foreground certain groups and experiences and/or portray them as natural while erasing others. This leads to a limited understanding of equality and a superficial commitment to diversity, which not only undermines the normative convictions of the EU, but also creates new patterns of discrimination and exclusion.