Anti-gender Movement in Slovenia: Between Fighting Marriage Equality and Strengthening LGBT+ Community

Despite strong opposition from the anti-gender movement, Slovenia became the first Eastern European country to pass a full marriage equality law in the summer of 2022, including adoption rights for same-sex couples. LGBT+ rights were the main catalyst for the rise of the anti-gender movement in Slovenia over a decade ago. It peaked with two referendums (in 2012 and 2015) in which the majority of referendum participants rejected marriage equality. Nevertheless, we argue that both referendums and other activities of the anti-gender movement in Slovenia ultimately contributed to the passage of marriage equality legislation and public acceptance of same-sex couples. In this paper we will first provide a critical overview of studies that have focused on the emergence of the anti-gender movement in Slovenia, its campaigns and strategies. Between the first and second referendum, anti-gender activists improved their tactics, built a strong network of supporters, and established themselves as an important and recognized actor with links to transnational anti-gender organizations. They have developed a wide range of action strategies and campaigns, including using contemporary digital communication technologies to spread populist messages, lobbying key government institutions, collaborating with the Slovenian RCC, initiating public controversies over school curricula that allegedly promote “gender theory,” and over public funding of LGBT+ and feminist NGO organizations in Slovenia. In the second part of our paper, we will focus on the consequences of the anti-gender movement in Slovenia, especially in terms of public opinion on LGBT+ rights and the impact on feminist and LGBT+ organizations. The anti-gender movement has led LGBT+ activists to develop strategies and build coalitions with other civil society actors. In addition, anti-gender activities appear to have strengthened active citizenship among those who were not part of LGBT+ activism. The LGBT+ community was supported not only by prominent figures from all walks of life, which had a positive impact on public attitudes toward the LGBT+ community, but also by “anonymous” LGBT+ individuals, their families and allies who entered the public sphere with their own stories. While both referenda were a legal defeat for the LGBT+ community in Slovenia, they were a victory in social terms. It is rare for a social issue to receive such widespread publicity, and it is precisely because of the activities of the anti-gender movement that this has happened. In the long run, their opposition has contributed not only to a change in public opinion, which now overwhelmingly supports same-sex marriage, but also to a change in the law.