ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that queer relational practices offer emancipatory non-state-centred imaginaries of human connection and interdependence. It examines recent efforts to strengthen the heteronormative underpinnings of the nation-state by measures including the recognition (or rejection) of same-sex marriage as a human rights issue. The chapter links these internal efforts, to strengthen the identity of the nation-state, with the increasing militarisation of state borders and the use of elaborate border fortifications to project power in the face of alleged external threats and provide reassurance to fearful (heteronormative) national loyalties. It concludes with some thoughts on how queer kinship systems might reshape border protection strategies and promote a shift of military resources into development, as hoped for by the Swedish activists. In Europe, the same disciplinary heteronormative sexual configuration has been a core technique of state governmentality. The effect has been to weaken relational ties that rested on radical sexual politics, alternative relational economies and communities unbound from the nation-state.
