Abstract
The homosexual radical right is often seen to be oxymoronic. It seems incomprehensible for many
that a marginalised group within society—homosexuals—can support a political movement which
is both homophobic and oppressive to others. It has been suggested that the interests, needs, and
demands of being both homosexual and politically radical right are so fundamentally opposed that
there cannot be a synthesis between these two identities. I characterise this juxtaposition and
incongruence of identities as identity conflict. This identity conflict is the central research area of this
thesis.
This thesis uses Sheldon Stryker’s (1991; 2001) symbolic interactionist approach to identity. This
approach views identity as a commitment that is strengthened through performance. In
understanding identity in this way, it also gives insight into conflict between identities and how an
individual can successfully resolve identity conflict. This approach conceptualises identity
commitments in terms of a salience hierarchy. This salience hierarchy is established by assessing an
individual’s commitment to an identity and framing any conflict as a challenge to this commitment.
I argue that the homosexual radical right can maintain congruent identities by resolving any
challenges to their identity commitments.
Through a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of forty-four texts, images, and memes that the
homosexual radical right has produced, I suggest that many members of the homosexual radical
right either successfully resolve, or do not experience, identity conflict. This identity conflict is
resolved through two strategies: 1) by denying the conflict exists, or 2) by minimising the conflict
to a tolerable level. The first strategy has three methods: Primarily, the homosexual radical right
engages in a reconstruction of radical right ideology to permit homosexuals to exist within the
ideological typology. The additional two methods of the first strategy are to either fictionalise the
homophobia of the radical right, or by suggesting that the conflict is artificially created by the
‘Other’. The second strategy of identity conflict resolution is the minimisation of identity conflict
which is achieved through creating an Other, which significantly threatens both homosexuals and
White people that any identity conflict can be tolerable. This thesis contributes to a small field of
work on the relationship between sexual and political identities, of which it is the first instance of
a suggestion that the radical right as an ideology can be queered.