Racist Heteronormativity – Heteronormative Racism

Abstract

Tracing the significance of discrimination for power politics, this contribution clearly demonstrates that in the case of homophobia the power-political context is heteronormativity and the normalization processes resulting from it. By analyzing interviews, the paper shows how closely discrimination is connected to the power of discourse. Identity politics, strategies of essentialization, marginalization and differentiation signify an economic power aimed at normalization by constructing «the Other,” i. e. the deviant, the marginal, the alien, etc. The focus of this contribution is mainly on the experiences of those interviewed with homophobia, institutional, structural and culturalist racisms, as well as with discrimination on the basis of social status.