In recent years, Brazil’s reputation as a sexually liberal country and a global leader in LGBTI+ rights has been challenged by the rise of the far-right, which was boosted by the election of former military officer and congressman Jair Bolsonaro (President of the Republic between 2019 and 2022). Despite playing a crucial role in opposing the government’s anti-democratic measures, such as austerity, deregulation, and the promotion of racial and gender violence, the LGBTI+ community showed cracks in this process, and Bolsonaro found supporters among non-heterosexual and non-cisgender audiences. As part of an emerging “proudly right-wing” LGBTI+ activism, these conservative activists connect with right-wing and far-right movements by promoting an idea of sexual progressivism that downplays homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, and lesbophobia while supporting neoliberal rationales, anti-gender politics, and anti-communist discourses. Based on fieldwork conducted from 2019 to 2021 for a doctoral research, this chapter delves into some intriguing overlaps between a form of pro-LGBTI+ politics and nationalist and colonial narratives in a country whose approach to LGBTI+ rights remains deeply paradoxical. It examines how some key features of homonationalism produced in the “Global North” are re-elaborated by queer subjects from the “South” within the context of colonial imaginary, narratives of national identity and rising homonormativity. In this sense, I state that American and European homonationalism cross borders and adapt to local hierarchies of race, class, and gender, and redefine local dynamics of queer struggles amidst rising authoritarianism. In addition, the chapter also discusses the limitations of homonationalism as a framework for analysing conservative attempts to incorporate queer subjects into the national body in Global South contexts. My argument is that Brazil’s mixed racial composition and non-ethnic based national identity complicate the racial schema embedded in early formulations of homonationalism. Finally, the Brazilian case also suggests that conservative integration into the national community can happen even without strong support for LGBTI+ rights and despite widespread opposition from conservative actors to gender equality and sexual and reproductive rights.
