Homophobia as a Keyword in the Italian Liberal Press (1979–2007). Debating New Boundaries of Sexual Citizenship

This article examines the progressive inclusion of the term ‘homophobia’ on the pages of two relevant Italian liberal newspapers (Corriere della Sera and la Repubblica) between 1979 and 2007. Combining frequency analysis and critical discourse analysis, we aim at reconstructing when and how the term ‘homo-phobia’ became a keyword in various public debates on the country’s sexual modernization. Our analysis reveals the ambivalent encounter of liberal norms and anti-homophobic rhetoric in the considered newspapers, focusing on two main dynamics. The first one corresponds to the broadening of the practical meanings of ‘homophobia’ beyond the normative stances of the L.G.B.T. acti-vism. The second one refers to the discursive linking of (anti)homophobia with Western ideas of sexual citizenship and the representation of otherness in a country where the political agenda of the L.G.B.T. movement has relatively failed.