New study examines Sweden Democrats’ selective recognition of LGBTQ+ identities

In her new article published in Discourse & Society, Marina Vahter challenges prevailing accounts of how Europe’s populist radical right engages with LGBTQ+ issues.

Examining Sweden Democrat manifestos and affiliated media, the study finds that the party draws moral boundaries within LGBTQ+ communities—conditionally accepting discreet, biologically framed identities while marginalising more visible and activist ones.

The article identifies five strategies used to sustain this hierarchy: moralisation, moral panic, appropriation of moral language, moral deflection and character delegitimation. It argues that such partial inclusion can function as a durable form of exclusion, weakening LGBTQ+ solidarity while allowing the party to portray itself as a moral guardian rather than a discriminatory actor.

Read the article here.