The Effects of Insurgency: LGBT Accommodation in the Czech Republic

The expansion of LGBT rights represents a contentious issue in CEE politics. While the EU provides an important framework for anchoring the minority accommodation within its antidiscrimination framework, the contestation of LGBT issues remains contingent on configuration and the dynamic interaction between domestic actors and their foreign allies (civil society, transnational courts). Using the expansion of LGBT rights (registered partnership, gay marriage) between 2005 and 2019 in the Czech Republic this paper maps the transformation of the party competition before and after the reconfiguration of the Czech political landscape. In the 2005-2006 registered partnership debates the competition took place between mainstream parties along the liberal/conservative cleavage. In 2013 and 2017 the Czech political landscape experienced significant fragmentation and two disruptions – the arrival of mainstream populists and the radical right (ANO and Down in 2013) and radical antiestablishment (Pirates in 2017). The party competition became more complex and strategies of both proponents and opponents of LGBT accommodation changed. Comparing roll call data, parliamentary debates and public opinion surveys this paper shows how the dynamic interaction between mainstream parties and the different kinds of insurgents (populists, radical right, radical anti-establishment). It focuses on how mainstream parties become challenged by insurgents and loose issue ownership to their radical counterparts, and the effects this has on the expansion of LGBT rights.