Multisexual Citizenship: Towards a New Framework of Human Rights and Citizenship for LGBTI Persons in Europe

In the last two decades, debates on emerging forms of post-national (Soysal 1994) or trans-national (Balibar 2004) citizenship in Europe have gained importance and have inevitably raised the question of whether European Citizenship can effectively supplement (or even transcend) national citizenship. Simultaneously, individuals themselves have started to mobilise non-national forms of belonging in order to claim their rights. The case of LGBT persons is particularly telling in this regard, as this heterogeneous group of individuals has increasingly relied on a strategic articulation of human rights claims at multiple levels, particularly in the context of the Council of Europe and the European Union. This Paper resorts to the concept of “multisexual citizenship” to describe a model of sexual citizenship that breaks the bond of presumed loyalty to the nation-state and allows multiple configurations of desires, bodily expressions and erotic and sentimental attachments. Through an analysis of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights concerning various issues relating to gender identity and sexual orientation, this paper will demonstrate how the model of “multisexual citizenship” can discard the current system of protection of human rights and the current understanding of citizenship. This approach takes into account the multiple struggles that people face and that ultimately may impair their ability to seek and obtain social justice. The paper will also reflect on how citizens (and non-citizens alike) can radically alter the meaning and the role of citizenship, as well as “strategically” appropriate forms of belonging in order to meet their needs.