This paper proposes a new way of thinking about the EU’s role as a guardian of LGBTIQ equality. On the one hand, the political landscape is increasingly polarised around questions of LGBTIQ equality. On the other hand, such contestation is increasingly being voiced from within the West. Thus, world order is showing signs of what Amitav Acharya calls ‘multiplexity’, characterised by the emergence of illiberal modernities within the West. This paper undertakes a theoretical exercise of co-articulating Acharya’s theory of multiplexity with queer International Relations’ critical interrogation of norm polarisation over LGBTIQ equality. By bringing these theoretical vocabularies into conversation, it becomes possible to better understand the challenges the EU faces in defending sexual and gender diversity both within and beyond the Union. First, multiplexity and polarisation are co-articulated to arrive at the notion of ‘multiplex polarisation’, characterised by lines of conflict over sexual and gender diversity that cut across West/Rest and liberal/illiberal divides in global politics. Secondly, the paper illustrates multiplex polarisation through examples of anti-gender contestation among EU actors—both in internal debates on LGBTIQ equality and in the EU’s external promotion of human rights for sexual and gender minorities at the United Nations. Finally, the paper offers suggestions for how the EU’s normative power as a guardian of LGBTIQ equality should be studied to address the political and analytical challenges of multiplex polarisation.
