Structuring, affirming identities: strategies of LGBT Eurovision fans during the Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The Eurovision Song Contest is subject to virulent criticism from the artistic and intellectual elites. Yet, the defense of individual and collective rights of minorities appears to be a particularly sensitive issue. Commonly (re)named with religious terms such as "gay Pesach" or "gay Christmas", this event is considered as a "structuring experience" of the identity of individuals claiming a different sexual orientation or gender. Recently, the contest has been challenged by the Covid-19 pandemic. This article highlights the networking strategies established by LGBT fans of the ESC, in order to structure an identity-based community, as they were unable to attend the contest "in real life". Firstly, I highlight these fans form a subaltern counterpublic that seizes the contest in order to assert a certain number of claims in favor of sexual minorities. Secondly, I analyze the ways in which this counterpublic organized itself online and developed new communal strategies during the pandemic. Finally, I emphasize that this new organization tends to maintain and even strengthen inequalities amongst the ESC LGBT fan community.