Refusing Queer Violence

Omar Mateen as US citizen, not foreign threat: Homonationalism and LGBTQ online representations of the Pulse nightclub shooting

“…Homonationalism has been used to explore a wide range of issues, yet research has only begun to explore the Pulse nightclub shooting through this lens (Calafell, 2017; Chávez, 2016). The small but growing body of scholarship focused on Pulse has devoted considerable attention to the role of mainstream media coverage in failing to mention the Latinx status of the victims (Acosta, 2016; Hancock and Haldeman, 2017; Koons, 2017; Lawrence, 2016; Ramirez et al., 2018).…”

“…Among the critical analyses that have pointed to homonationalism, Calafell (2017: 198) has argued that “the intimate relationship between US imperialism and homonationalism should be implicated in any discussion of the Orlando murders.” Other critiques have similarly situated the shooting in relation to systemic transnational violence, as Halberstam (2016: n.p.) has pointed to “the urgent need to confront state violence” and Kalish Blair (2016: 111) has emphasized the importance of understanding “long-standing, structural violence, fused at the nexus of militarism, US imperialism, and neoliberal multiculturalism.” These critical analyses have also addressed media representations of Mateen; for instance, Cram (2016: 148) has described these depictions as advancing “tropes of the ‘backwards homophobic Muslim,’” while Chávez (2016: 160–161) has critiqued media discourse of Mateen for reinforcing beliefs that “homophobia and transphobia are worse in communities of color,” which has helped to justify the targeting of those communities in a variety of ways (Meyer, 2016).…”