In this panel, we zoom in on a number of pivotal aspects of the politics of feminism and sexual democracy in contemporary Europe, especially the sometimes surprising ways in which women’s and LGBTIQ-rights have come to figure in right-wing populist political movements; new and neoliberal articulations of feminism; and leftist, social-democratic, and social-liberal policies of migrant integration and emancipation. We take a critical look at the political and social anxiety surrounding the recent achievement of sexual democracy, i.e., the extension of full civil rights to citizens who do not conform to heterosexual “normality.” Sexual democracy thus raises important questions concerning political democracy and citizenship in pluralistic societies. As Fassin and Salcedo (2016: 1118) argue, gender and sexuality have become a primary battleground as it raises the limits of our democratic logic - a logic in which laws and norms are defined from within, not “through some transcendent principle” (Ibid.). In the context of this anxious politics, sexual liberty is incorporated into a cultural protectionist discourse that associates it with secularism and liberalism and pits it against the allegedly backward cultures and religions of post-immigrant citizens, especially Muslims. We look at different aspects of these dynamics: secular nostalgia and queer Muslim organising; sexual politics and the roots of Western rage; and the political economy of femonationalism.