Gay and happy: (Proto

To be happy has become an overwhelming imperative for contemporary gay men. Interrogating the shame-to-happiness narratives of British gay male celebrities, this article expands the concept of homonormativity by exploring its emotional dimensions. I argue that, in popular representations, happiness has become a form of proto-homonormativity, demarcated as a prerequisite to a ‘successful’ (homonormative) gay life. I conceptualize proto-homonormativity as an emergent paradigm of gay male subjectivity, which is shaped by broader valorizations of authenticity and self-therapy which permeate neoliberal media cultures. As articulated by gay celebrities, proto-homonormative discourses acknowledge the barriers to happiness that gay men face in heteronormative societies, yet reproduce heteronormativity by demarcating individualized processes of emotional self-work as the route to becoming happy