Women’s, feminist and LGBTQ+ movements have traditionally used references to “European” norms and values in the discursive legitimation of their programs. This is no coincidence, given the EU’s and Europe’s intention to protect and promote gender equality norms and LGBTQ+ rights (as exemplified by the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), gender mainstreaming or the European Convention on Human Rights). No wonder that its opposition, also recognized as the “anti-gender” movement, has engaged in counter-framing, delegitimizing the respective European legislation as colonial and imperialist projects that endanger national sovereignty and clash with local and religious values that, in their interpretation, tend to cherish traditionalist notions of gender relations. While this is a common image of the discursive position of “Europe” in anti-gender movements, a more careful review of recent literature reveals a need for reconsideration. Indeed, some anti-gender campaigns demonstrate a discursive and tactical shift from openly opposing and discursively delegitimizing European and EU mechanisms and institutions to working within and through them (e.g. the European Citizens’ Initiative), appropriating the legal “rights” frame to push through legislation that undermines equality mechanisms, and proactively offering a neoconservative vision of Europe as a counter-norm. The lecture explains this shift as part of the transnational diffusion of frames and strategies, whereby the European anti-gender movement learns and adapts successful tactics from the US-based religious right and conservative legal movement.
Email: z.sirocic@uni-graz.at