Rainbow Flag and Belongings/Disbelongings: Öckerö Pride and Reclaim Pride in Gothenburg, Sweden 2019

Abstract

In spite of the rainbow flag’s importance as a symbol for transnational queer belonging and its meanings for the survival of queers all over the world, much critical queer Anglo-Saxon research and activism concerning the rainbow flag and the celebration of Pride claims that it has lost its radical potential through processes of normalisation, mainstreaming, homonationalism and commercialisation. In order to address other queer political issues, alternative Pride events are organized in parallel with conventional Pride celebrations. This chapter will discuss two Pride events held in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2019, Reclaim Pride and Öckerö Pride, drawing on auto-ethnographic methods. It will reflect on two connected questions: What meanings, emotions, actions and temporalities are (re)produced as a result of the relationship between the events, the rainbow flag, the concept of Pride and the activists/participants-including the author? In what ways do the rainbow flag and the concept of Pride work as co-producers of belongings as well as disbelongings-and how does the author’s position as a Swedish, middle-class, white, lesbian, feminist, mother, former activist and now sociologist affect her feelings of belonging and disbelonging? It is shown that the rainbow flag is a very topical and heated cultural artefact in the Swedish political arena, in which racism, homophobia and Islamophobia are growing. The author’s experiences and emotions at the two Pride events reflect the ambivalent struggle that takes place at the borders of belonging and disbelonging. Temporality and space are important aspects of the contextualisation that needs to be applied in order to grasp the different effects that processes of inclusion and exclusion have on queer people in different places and situations.