Anti-gender Mobilization and Transformative Political Opportunities: The Slovenian Path to Marriage Equality

In 2022, Slovenia became the first post-socialist country to achieve full marriage equality, including adoption rights for same-sex couples. This paper examines how the mobilizations of anti-gender actors, while intended to block equality, paradoxically generated new political opportunities for progressive change. Drawing on historical and discourse analysis of legislative developments, referenda, and Constitutional Court decisions, the study identifies four phases in the regulation of same-sex partnerships: the hesitant support of the left, the right’s instrumental appropriation of the issue, the emergence of anti-gender mobilizations, and the final stage of strategic litigation. The paper argues that the Slovenian anti-gender movement—through its populist appeals to “protect the family,” “save the children,” and even “defend grandparents”—provoked a counter-mobilization that broadened alliances between LGBT, feminist, and human-rights actors. Public debates, though initially hostile, created unprecedented visibility for LGBT citizens and fostered a shift in public opinion, as reflected in long-term polling data showing reduced social distance and growing acceptance of same-sex partnerships. These social transformations culminated in Constitutional Court rulings that reframed equality as a democratic and constitutional imperative, explicitly rejecting the moral and populist claims of anti-gender actors. The Slovenian case demonstrates how illiberal mobilizations, despite their regressive aims, can activate democratic resilience through renewed commitments to equality and human rights and open transformative political opportunities for equality movements.