Pinkwashing, Homonationalism, and Israel–Palestine: The Conceits of Queer Theory and the Politics of the Ordinary Jason Ritchie Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA;
[email protected] Abstract: This paper offers a critique of the theory of homonationalism, which has become virtually hegemonic in contemporary queer thought and activism. Some theorists have tried to distance homonationalism from its popular/activist manifestation of “pinkwatching”, which refers to the increasingly vocal efforts of queer anti-occupation activists to expose the Israeli government’s efforts to “pinkwash” its treatment of Palestinians by touting its record on gay rights. The paper argues, however, that both suffer from fundamental conceptual flaws and ultimately have more to do with the contexts in which they circulate—“gay” cities in the US and Europe—than Israel–Palestine. The paper suggests a political and analytical shift away from the totalizing theory of homonationalism—and the simplistic critiques of pinkwashing inspired by it—to a more complex and contextualized focus on the ways in which ordinary bodies are regulated in their movements through time and space. Keywords: homonationalism, queer theory, neoliberalism, Israel–Palestine Pinkwashing in the (Queer) City On 22 February 2011, Michael Lucas, a porn actor/producer and occasional columnist for The Advocate who describes himself as “the most mainstreamed, provocative, and controversial figure in gay adult entertainment” got word that a group of queer anti-occupation activists were planning to host a party at New York City’sLGBT Community Center (http://www.michaellucas.com). In response, Lucas made some phone calls and issued a press release threatening a boycott that would “involve some of the Center’s most generous donors” (Lucas 2011).