The influence of anti-gender mobilizations on the family policies in modern-day Serbia and Croatia

Current debates on the crisis of the family and family values that are intensified by the growing anti-gender mobilizations of the last decade, imply a new wave of consolidation of patriarchal culture and thus strictly maintainance of the gap between, in this discourse, binary gender categories. In the context of post-Yugoslav societies in which the socialist and continental heritage of welfare state intertwines with the changes inspired by neoliberal ideas, (neo)conservative political actors easily take discussions about the crisis of the family as an argument in their populistic welfare program, while emphasizing the social norm of 'complete family' that implies heteronormativity as the only "normal" and "healthy", "optimal environment" for the growth and development of a child. These debates acquire a specific dimension in modern-day Croatia and Serbia, since their basis was formulated even during wars of Yugoslav seccession when the traditional conceptualizations of gender were central to the discourses of the biological survival of the nation and (re)construction of collective national identities. We argue that actors representing arguments based on religious nationalism made an impact on family policies in Serbia and Croatia ever since, and that they still actively work to make certain non-normative and non-heterosexual families invisible or explicitly, discursively and legally, excluded from conceptualizations of caretakers, those who have a right to (access) children and a right to care for children as a parent. The focus of this paper is on the actors shaping narratives on families in modern-day Serbia and Croatia, and on the discrepancies and tensions in normative frameworks these narratives suggest. Through narrative textual analysis of legislative framework relevant for the family policies in modern-day Croatia and Serbia, as well as of the available documents on relevant public debates organized by the governing structures in these two countries from 2000 onwards, we seek to provide answers to the following questions: Who are the actors who create narratives on families in modern-day Croatia and Serbia, and how do these different actors influence family policies? What are the main lines of conflict between them? What are the differences and similarities between Serbia and Croatia regarding the influence of anti-gender mobilizations on the family policies?