What is it about?
In the wake of Donald Trump's 2016 election win, many people took to social media to express support for the new president. Some of them claimed to be gay or lesbian voters who were offended that liberals supposedly assumed all LGBTQ people should be anti-Trump. In our analysis, we show that there are three ways that #GaysForTrump make sense of their position. Firstly, that they have to "come out" as Republican because they are shamed, bullied, and victimized by the mainstream, much like gay people were in the United States in the recent past. They now show "pride" much like the gay pride movement of the 1970s. Secondly, they construct conservative men as more attractive: more manly, less effeminate, and therefore more desirable. And finally, they argue that Trump's focus on keeping foreigners out and the borders strong is seen as a way to protect them from immigrants constructed as threatening, homophobic, and otherwise dangerous.
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Why is it important?
We show that, together, a commitment to traditional gender roles, and white racial solidarity, support an alliance between groups of people whose conflicting values about sexuality would otherwise prevent them from working together.
Perspectives
I wrote this article with two of my most talented and wonderful MSc students at the University of Gothenburg - Marina Bergozza and Francesca Coco. They did the research on which the article is based, and I loved working with such energetic, rigorous, and insightful people.
Scott Burnett
Pennsylvania State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: #GaysForTrump, Journal of Language and Sexuality, January 2024, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/jls.22010.ber.
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