Contentious gender politics in Italy and Croatia: diffusion of transnational anti-gender movements to national contexts

ABSTRACT

Contemporary anti-gender movements mobilize against gender and sexual equality for which feminist and LGBTQI+ movements have been advocating for decades. We propose the term ‘contentious gender politics’ to capture this clash of opposing movements concerning bodily integrity, kinship structures, sexual morality, and institutionalization of gender equality. Existing literature has recognized the transnational character of anti-gender movements and identified matching tactics, frames, and allies across different countries. We examine how these transnational movements used similar campaigns to ‘localize’. Localization is conceptualized in this research as the process of adapting frames and tactics to different national contexts. To do so, this study examines the diffusion of social movements and anti-gender campaigns by comparing anti-gender movements in Italy and Croatia through critical events between 2013 and 2019. We demonstrate that the localization of these anti-gender movements occurred through a three-step pathway: first, by adapting frames and tactics of left-liberal civil society and progressive movements; second, by forging alliances with existing right-wing parties; and third, by embedding its agenda within formal political and administrative bodies.

KEYWORDS:

• Anti-gender movements
• diffusion
• transnational
• catholic church
• Italy
• Croatia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex.

2. Draft bill n. 245, XVII Legislatura, ‘Disposizioni in materia di contrasto dell’omofobia e della transfobia’.

3. Atto Senato n. 735, XVIII Legislatura, ‘Norme in materia di affido condiviso, mantenimento diretto e garanzia di bigenitorialità’.

4. Law 76/2016, ‘Regolamentazione delle unioni civili tra persone dello stesso sesso e disciplina delle convivenze’.

5. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi launched the referendum to reform the constitution, including the composition and powers of Parliament (encompassing the Senate). However, 59.11% of the electorate voted against the proposed reform after which Matteo Renzi resigned. Retrieved from La Repubblica, available at https://www.repubblica.it/static/speciale/2016/referendum/costituzionale/, last accessed 23 December 2021.

6. E.g. La Manif Pour Tous Italia – Generazione Famiglia (2015). L’ideologia gender è contro l’uomo; Pillon, S. (2014). Le radici storico-filosofiche dell’indifferentismo sessuale. https://bit.ly/3EbIlN5, last accessed 16 December 2021.

7. Amato, G. (12 December 2013). Tredici motivi per dire no alla legge sull’omofobia. La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana. https://bit.ly/3yIrrnP, last accessed 18 October 2021); Salvini, M. (30 March 2019). Intervento al XII WCF. Facebook, available at: https://bit.ly/2M019Gi, last accessed December, 2021.

8. Amato, G. (2015). Gender (D)istruzione. Fede&Cultura, Verona.

9. One example is the online news portal Narod.hr, available at: https://narod.hr/, last accessed 22 December 2021.

10. From 2014 to 2016 one part of the veterans’ associations staged a series of protest actions demanding the resignation of the center-left Minister of Veterans’ Affairs.

11. Guerra, M. (25 May 2016). Gandolfini schiera il Family Day sul no al referendum. La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana. https://bit.ly/3shBRty; CDNF, last accessed 26 November 2016). Famiglie per il no a Verona. Associazione Family Day – Difendiamo i Nostri Figli. https://bit.ly/3J2hIh7

12. CDNF (5 March 2018). Gandolfini (Family Day): Mantenuta la promessa fatta a Renzi: fecondate le forze del centro destra. Associazione Family Day – Difendiamo i Nostri Figli. https://bit.ly/3qb9f2A, last accessed December, 222,021.

13. The educational reform was planned over several years and according to their advocates was supposed to make Croatian pupils ‘better prepared’ for the contemporary economic context through the dissemination of ‘practical’ knowledge, and training in ‘critical thinking’ with regard to the ethos of tolerance and diversity. More on the reform and the protest available at https://hrvatskamozebolje.org/, last accessed 22 December 2021.

14. The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.

15. Photo gallery in Jutarnji.hr, available at https://www.jutarnji.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/prosvjed-protiv-ratifikacije-istanbulske-konvencije-u-zagrebu-7167366, last accessed last accessed 22 December 2021).

16. Gandolfini, M. (24 January 2018). Il Comitato Difendiamo i Nostri Figli al voto. Provita&Famiglia Onlus. https://bit.ly/3Eh7KoE, last accessed 22 December 2021.

17. Law 194/78 refers to the legalization of abortion in Italy in 1978.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Lavizzari

Anna Lavizzari is a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the Scuola Normale Superiore and a research fellow at the Centre on Social Movement Studies (COSMOS). Her research interests include youth political participation, gender, and social movement studies.

Zorica Siročić

Zorica Siročić is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Graz in Austria. Her teaching and research foci include political sociology and sociology of gender.