When anti-gender actors speak the language of feminists: Right-wing parliamentary discourse in Uruguay

The 2019 elections brought to power in Uruguay a right-wing coalition which includes among its ranks hardline conservatives, evangelical pastors, politicians with close links to the Catholic church, and former members of the military, aligned in their outspoken criticism of the so-called “rights agenda”, including laws and public policies on liberalisation of abortion, gender-based violence, transgender rights and sex education. While these profiles are increasingly common in Latin American right-wing parties that have brought populist leaders to power, they are much less common in Uruguay, a country with a long-standing secular state, and low levels of religiosity. Uruguay also stands out in the region in terms of the advances in gender equality legislation achieved during fifteen years of left-wing government (2005-2020), and the stable, widespread gender-equal attitudes registered in public opinion surveys. Since the right-wing coalition came to power, resistance to the gender equality agenda has been reflected both in the obstruction of public policy implementation and in the presentation of bills that include provisions undermining rights enshrined in the progressive laws. However, despite the clearly conservative principles underpinning their political proposals, centred on defending the traditional patriarchal nuclear family and essentialist conceptions of gender identity, their discourse is far more complex. This paper analyses the discursive dispute that framed the discussion of two bills on shared custody introduced in 2020 by parties within the right-wing coalition, which were voted in as law on in May 2023. Drawing on discourse theory and the discursive historical approach, I analyse the parliamentary discussion, including the original bills presented, discussions in committee and in the chambers, and the text of the law passed. The study focuses on the main argumentative resources used and the chains of significance drawn from the central concepts of the right’s discourse, as well as identifying intertextualities between these sources and other earlier texts, to explore the process by which their discourse has been forged. The analysis shows how these actors have developed a complex discourse that emphasize traditional notions of the family and gender roles, while at the same time resignifying key concepts of feminist discourse.