This article examines how demands for the rights of sexual/gender minorities (LGBT) in Israel resonates within discourses on Zionism and Jewish national identity. In recent years, studies on the movement for LGBT rights in Israel have almost exclusively been written from the perspective of Jasbir Puar’s concept of “homonationalism.” Yet these studies have paid little attention to the relationship of local Israeli nationalism, i.e., Zionism, and its connection to homonationalism. This article analyzes the following two examples to demonstrate how right-wing discourses within the LGBT movement, whose presence in the movement has grown significantly in recent years. These are not only associated with the recent homonationalist framework but also Zionism and Jewish national identity.

  The first example reveals how the pink triangle located outside the LGBT center in Tel Aviv plays an important role in a discourse seeking to emphasize the connection between homosexual persecution and Jewish victimhood during the show’s (Holocaust) and highlights efforts to reclaim the subjectivity of the Jewish nation. The second example is a placard reading, “You Have a Home,” a phrase originated by Likud Pride, the LGBT organization within Likud. This placard was often raised by members of Likud Pride as they walked in one of Israel’s Pride Marches. This slogan intersects and recalls the colonialist discourse on the establishment of a Zionist Jewish home. These examples indicate that the demand for LGBT rights was co-opted by Israel’s right-wing, as revealed by not only their homonationalist discourses relative to the war on terror, but also in the homonationalist discourses which align with the Zionist colonial discourse that seeks to: 1) rehabilitate and reform the image of the Jewish male citizenry, 2) establish Jewish heteronormative homes and 3) create a secular nation whose citizens enjoy the protection of western human rights.

This paper explores the politics of sexuality issues (sexuality politics) between the government and the LGBT movement in Malaysia since the 1980s. The Malaysian LGBT movement has faced repressive government policies and discrimination from society. However, some LGBT movements in the post-Mahathir era, such as Seksualiti Merdeka, Justice for Sisters, and Pelangi, have associated with the other NGOs and social movements and actively advocated the protection of LGBT people’s human rights in public spaces.

This paper explores when and how sexuality politics between the state and the LGBT movement appeared in Malaysia. Four incidents or moments were found to be important for the birth of sexuality politics in Malaysia: Islamization since the 1980s, the Asian Values discourse during the Mahathir administration, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the sodomy court case of Anwar Ibrahim. In the post-Mahathir era, the state has introduced new ways of repressing LGBT people, while the LGBT movements have also adopted new strategies.