Three Steps Forward and, If Possible, Not a Single Step Back —Luxembourg Perspectives on Societal Discourses Concerning Sexuality

This article will retrace the developmental lines of societal discourses concerning sexuality as well as the changing significance, acceptance, de-dramatization, and normalization of non-heteronormative, non-binary configurations of gender. In a first step, the figure of the continuum will be outlined as a theoretical framework and analytic tool for gender diversity. Subsequently, the article will illustrate certain key data points concerning the situation of women and men in Luxembourg and establish a comparison with the European and international situation. Selected research findings will be discussed, although it must be noted that, in the early 2010s, this research was still concerned exclusively with binary configurations of gender. Following a first synopsis, the paper will divert its attention to trans, intersex, non-binary, queer, and agender persons in Luxembourg and will introduce current national and international research findings concerning Luxembourg, as well as national ministerial measures and positionings. Following an excursion towards sexology in medicine as well as teaching and research environments at universities, the article will cast a glance towards the year 2050 and finally illuminate the relation, the four-way connection between physicality, psyche, social behavior, and desire to thus illustrate perspectives towards possible future developments.