Introduction

Abstract

In the last few decades, LGBT rights have increasingly been used as a measure of modernity and what it means to be European. Yet, such practices have not been without contestation and political struggles. This chapter provides a background to LGBT politics in Europe, with particular attention to the EU enlargement process. Based on the observation of continued political contestation around LGBT rights globally as well as within the European context, and the limited scope of the EU’s competences, the chapter introduces the book’s aim of disentangling the symbolism of LGBT rights in the EU enlargement process by focusing on the promotion of, and resistance to, LGBT rights within it. Thus, by considering the international context of homonationalism, the chapter argues that one must move away from a classical approach to Europeanisation in which the impact of the EU on a third country is examined, and introduces the need for a dynamic and relational conceptualisation of the EU enlargement process in which norms are inherently contested, and normative struggles between the EU and candidate countries must be resolved in order to advance the political integration process. In doing so, the chapter introduces the central research question of the book: How do the EU and a candidate country negotiate normative tensions in relation to LGBT rights which have been created as part of the overarching political integration process? And what political outcomes does this process produce?