This paper explores the entanglements of promotion of and resistance to LGBTQI+ equality in global politics through the lens of Derrida’s notion of ‘im-possibility’. From this theoretical perspective, the promotion of LGBTQI+ equality is only ‘possible as impossible’ because such efforts risk making possible the very thing they seek to combat. The paper highlights three ‘im-possible’ ideals significant to global LGBTQI+ politics, using examples from the European Union’s promotion of LGBTQI+ equality: identity, consensus, and enabling forms of promotion. First, im-possibility is introduced through queer theory’s critique of identity politics, demonstrating how the inclusion of sexual and gender minorities as subjects of rights and equality is only ‘possible as impossible’ due to the homonormative exclusions involved in defining and representing a ‘queer’ identity. Second, the assumption that LGBTQI+ advocates must speak and act as one for the promotion of LGBTQI+ equality to be effective is shown to be an im-possible ideal, as the pursuit of consensus can result in lowest-common-denominator politics. Third, the attempt to draw (geo)political boundaries between enabling forms of LGBTQI+ equality promotion and its resistance by anti-LGBTQI+ Others is shown to be im-possible: resisting actors increasingly mimic the way in which LGBTQI+ equality is promoted, thus highlighting how promotion can inadvertently shape resistance. The paper concludes by arguing that the study of im-possibility in global LGBTQI+ politics can be approached through two complementary frames: firstly, one seeks to identify im-possible ideals, where efforts to promote LGBTQI+ equality inadvertently enable what they seek to combat; second, one critically explores how im-possible ideals informing the promotion of LGBTQI+ equality could be questioned, to continuously renew a global queer politics that go beyond socially constructed experiences of possibility.
