The Rise of the Anti-Gender Movement in Croatia and the 2013 Marriage Referendum

Abstract

This study uses the 2013 Croatian marriage referendum to show how anti-gender activists successfully reframed LGBT rights and emerged as influential political actors. Our examination of newspaper LGBT frames in the period 2002–2013 situates the referendum framing in its broader discursive field. Our analysis shows that anti-gender activists negotiated new resonance for ‘old’ socially conservative issues by appropriating the human rights frame and eroding its credibility, and by seeming to disassociate themselves from morality frames. Our findings contribute to the literature on anti-gender mobilisations in Europe by identifying new framing strategies used by anti-gender actors in their efforts to bring about wider policy and societal changes.

Notes

1 ‘Izvješće o provedenom državnom referendum održanom 1. prosinca 2013’, Državno izborno povjerenstvo RH, 10 December 2013, available at: https://www.izbori.hr/arhiva-izbora/data/referendum/2013/izabrani/i_81_000_0000.pdf, accessed 18 August 2020.

2 See, for example, Hodžić and Bijelić (2014), Hodžić and Štulhofer (2017), Petričušić et al. (2017), Slootmaeckers and Sircar (2018).

3 See, for example, Benford and Snow (2000).

4 For the ‘culture as problem-solving tool’ perspective, see also Swidler (2000).

5 The 2003 Act on Same-sex Unions remained symbolic, as same-sex partners were granted solely the rights to assist and mutually support each other and to jointly arrange property ownership which were virtually unimplementable given the inability of same-sex couples to register their union and the lack of harmonisation with other legislation (Vučković Juroš 2015).

6 See, for example, Hodžić and Bijelić (2014), Hodžić and Štulhofer (2017), Petričušić et al. (2017), Glaurdić and Vuković (2016), Slootmaeckers and Sircar (2018).

7 We are well aware of the complexity of terminology in this matter. For the sake of simplicity, however, we decided to use the established term LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*) throughout most of the text, even though many of the frames used in the Croatian public discourse only include gays and lesbians.

8 See, ‘The CroNewsLGBT Database 2002–2013’, available at: https://sites.google.com/site/vuckovicjuros/cronewslgbt, accessed 25 August 2020.

9 Our coding checklist also included the possibility of neutral or unidentifiable evaluations, but their presence was limited to several very technical legal interpretations. Therefore, we excluded those from the presentation of results.

10 The participants of the 2007 Zagreb Pride suffered verbal and physical attacks during and after the event, and the police also arrested a group of young people suspected of planning to throw Molotov Cocktails at the parade (Ponoš 2007).

11 ‘Raskol pod zastavom duge’, Glas Slavonije, 11 July 2005.

12 ‘Zakon o suzbijanju diskriminacije treba značajno doraditi’, Jutarnji list, 9 July 2008.

13 ‘Pobuna s Kaptola: Sexualni odgoj podijelio Hrvatsku’, Večernji list, 13 December 2012.

14 ‘Peticijom traže da se u Ustav ugradi “Obitelj su mama i tata”’, Slobodna Dalmacija, 12 May 2013.

15 ‘Zagrebački HDZ: Nadamo se da će svi normalni glasati “za”’, 24 sata, 28 November 2013.

16 ‘Bozanić: Neka svatko s ponosom i radošću zaokruži odgovor “ZA”’, Večernji list, 20 November 2013.

17 ‘Referendumom do zabrane istospolnih brakova’, Novi list, 25 April 2013. The French legalisation of same-sex marriage occurred amidst opposing demonstrations organised by a French conservative initiative La Manis pour tous, whose strategies were emulated by the UIO and similar groups in other countries likewise using the ‘French case’ as their cautionary tale (Paternotte & Kuhar 2017b).

18 ‘O referendumu u Splitu’, Slobodna Dalmacija, 25 November 2013.

19 ‘Markić: Referendum je prilika da zaustavimo teror’, Glas Slavonije, 18 November 2013.

20 ‘Željka Markić: Očekujemo da Bauk preispita prijedlog zakona o životnom partnerstvu’, Večernji list, 3 December 2013.

21 ‘Na barikadama kulturnog rata’, Slobodna Dalmacija, 24 May 2013.

22 ‘Sociolozi: Markić selektivno pokušava koristiti istraživanja’, 24 sata, 4 December 2013.

23 ‘O referendumu u Splitu’, Slobodna Dalmacija, 25 November 2013.

24 ‘Sučelili smo “U ime obitelji” i “Građani glasaju protiv”: Tko ima bolje argumente?’, Večernji list, 28 November 2013.

25 ‘Željka Markić “Želimo da gay parovi nikada ne dobiju ista prava kao normalni ljudi”’, Jutarnji list, 29 November 2013.

26 ‘Ispred Sabora okupilo se oko tisuću ljudi’, 24 sata, 14 June 2013.

27 See the ‘fringe effect’ in Bail (2012).

28 ‘Željka Markić na dan izborne šutnje marširat će protiv pobačaja’, Novi list, 19 April 2019, available at: http://novilist.hr/Vijesti/Hrvatska/Zeljka-Markic-na-dan-izborne-sutnje-marsirat-ce-protiv-pobacaja, accessed 1 June 2019.

29 ‘U ime obitelji: Istospolni parovi ne bi smjeli posvajati i udomljavati djecu’, Večernji list, 26 November 2018, available at: https://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/u-ime-obitelji-istospolni-parovi-ne-bi-smjeli-posvajati-i-udomljavati-djecu-1285140, accessed 1 June 2019.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tanja Vučković Juroš

Tanja Vučković Juroš, Interdisciplinary Research Center on Families and Sexualities (CIRFASE), Université catholique de Louvain, Place Montesquieu 1, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Email: [email protected]

Ivana Dobrotić

Ivana Dobrotić, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, 32 Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2ER, UK. Email: [email protected]

Sunčica Flego

Sunčica Flego, Dom za starije osobe Trešnjevka, Trg S. Penkale 1, Zagreb, Croatia. Email: [email protected]