Navigating Transphobia and Trans-chauvinism: Trans People in the Alternative für Deutschland

In her paper, Judith Goetz tackles transphobia by analyzing the far-right German party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) with a short excursion into Austrian politics. Goetz introduces the concept of transchauvinism as a variation on femo- and homonationalism, arguing that the involvement of trans people in right-wing politics has not been researched sufficiently. Through a critical discourse analysis, the paper investigates the strategies that trans militants of the AfD adopt to bridge the obvious contradictions they face, as well as the reasons why the AfD itself accepts trans people in its ranks. On the one hand, the actors’ individual strategies include the denial of hostility, the privatization (if not rejection) of transness, the externalization of discrimination onto Muslims, and the instrumentalization of one’s own identity to reject criticisms. On the other hand, the AfD gives leeway to its trans members and champions their presence against a common—and allegedly intolerant—enemy. In the end, the trans identities that are integrated in the German ‘we’ are those that comply with (hetero)normativity: Goetz regards this precarious inclusion as a form of transchauvinism.