Sammendrag
I have always said that Spain is the land that smells of sun-scorched earth, strong cigarettes and cheap perfume, and that you can notice the fragrance immediately once you exit the aeroplane. It is the ultimate sign and reminder that you have reached your Iberian destination, and that good times are to come. I can now, with much gaiety, say the same about Gibraltar. At the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula you will find the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, with approximately 30.000 inhabitants of mixed descent. The rock of Gibraltar is connected to mainland Spain, and the Spanish border town of La Línea de la Concepción, through a small land strip. The border, which also serves as an airport, was closed from 1969 until 1985 under the orders of the fascist leader Francisco Franco. Spain has wanted, and demanded, Gibraltar back ever since Britain took control over the territory in 1713. My fieldwork was conducted in this area among homosexual men. I researched how a homosexual sexuality can be related to the Anglo-Spanish state border, the Gibraltar Question, and Brexit as a backdrop of changing identity. By taking history, religion, ethnicity, nationalism, politics, borders/boundaries, sexuality and identity into account, I have tried to provide an answer to how sexuality, ethnicity/nationalism, and border(-politics) confluence at the level of public and personal identity, through the phenomenon of intersectionality. This thesis is not activist in nature, as can be seen by the almost total lack of Queer Theory, but my greatest wish is still for it, if only as a small drop of water in the ocean, to highlight the need to take sexual minorities into consideration in future Gibraltarian post-Brexit negotiations, and also further on in future solutions to the Gibraltar Question as a whole.