Progressive legal protections and permissive social norms reveal a truth long acknowledged by diplomatic practitioners: diplomatic officers of diverse gender and sexual expression (LGBTQ+) have always worked in diplomacy. As the queer diplomat’s voice emerges from historical exclusions and social repression, exciting new epistemological work may be undertaken to locate the boundaries of the archetypical diplomat; not only an inherently hetero-masculine figure as asserted by seminal gender in diplomacy scholarship, but as a figure bound by cis-heteronormativity. Representing the first global study of its kind and drawing upon original doctoral research of over 170 LGBTQ+ diplomats across 20 states, this paper utilises queer and feminist institutionalist theory to make further gains on scholarship of gender and sexuality in diplomacy. The research uncovers compounding challenges and opportunities for the LGBTQ+ career diplomat; how queer identity is institutionally asserted and managed by diplomats; how cis-heteronormative logics of national identity and security shape the integration and contestation of queer diplomats as representatives of the state; and their value and vulnerability amid an increasingly polarised international fora. As the diplomatic closet swings open, the queer diplomat emerges as a subject of inquiry – and with their arrival, new, layered dimensions of the contemporary diplomatic practitioner may be realised. This abstract represents doctoral research that will be adapted into a book proposal.
