The conditions of homonativism: Discursive opportunity, party ideology and the radical right in Scandinavia

Why does homonativist rhetoric – the strategic inclusion of selected Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer rights within nativist projects – vary across structurally similar democracies? This article examines the conditions under which populist radical right parties deploy sexual tolerance as a nativist boundary marker, comparing Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Drawing on party manifestos, interviews with civil society organisations and European Social Survey data, the analysis identifies five intersecting conditions enabling homonativism: normalised LGB equality, culturally framed immigration politicisation, permissive coalition structures, mass attitudinal support lending credibility to party framing and a doctrinally nativist party actor. Sweden and Denmark satisfy these conditions, producing visible homonativist articulation. Norway, despite comparable Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer acceptance and immigration salience, does not – owing to the Progress Party’s market-liberal roots and the absence of sustained civilisational framing. The findings demonstrate that homonativism is a contingent strategic configuration rather than an inevitable feature of Western sexual modernity or the contemporary radical right.