Right Out Of Their Playbook!

One thing all these authoritarian governments Russia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Brazil, Colombian, Iran, Guatemala,  and Perú have in common with Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota… anti-LGBTQ+ laws!

How Targeting LGBTQ+ Rights Are Part of the Authoritarian Playbook
Corrupt leaders from Colombia to Hungary to Oklahoma are using us as pawns to maintain power.
The Advocate
By Mauricio Albarracin-Caballero
September 3, 2022<


In the last three decades, protections for LGBTQ people’s rights have advanced rapidly in many countries and regions. However, rising populist authoritarianism poses a significant threat to this progress because abolishing sexual freedom is often at the heart of repressive political projects. The progress and backsliding in my home country, Colombia, illustrates the process of using democracy to erode rights.

In 2016, Colombia seemed like a legal paradise for LGBTQ people. That year, a pinnacle of legislative success was a Constitutional Court ruling that secured a range of family rights for same-sex couples, including marriage and adoption, and protection of LGBTQ students in schools. But toward the end of the year, there was another exceptional event. In an effort to end a brutal, decades-long armed conflict, the Andean country held a plebiscite on a peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas. Unexpectedly, a small majority of 50.2 percent rejected the agreement after a bitter and polarizing campaign.

A key issue that mobilized the “no” electorate was the moral panic generated by the inclusion of gender, women rights, and LGBTQ-related provisions in the peace agreement, including a definition of gender and the explicit recognition of these populations as victims of the armed conflict. Extremist groups decried these provisions as imposing a “gender ideology,” tapping into a recent controversy about gender and sexuality education in schools.

And then the conservative right-wing came into power!

Anti-LGBTQ movements develop national, regional, and global strategies that rely on political authoritarianism, the spread of misinformation, and grassroots mobilization. A notable rhetorical feature of the anti-gender movement is its use of human rights language to undermine LGBTQ rights, for example, by using religious freedom or parental rights as a basis for attacking minority rights. This political homophobia approach is the major threat to LGBTQ rights worldwide.

[…]

Moreover, these actors are often aligned with authoritarian political projects that use social media to spread misinformation and smear campaigns. They instrumentalize anxieties around children and their welfare to garner popular support, invoking inveterate, dangerous stereotypes of LGBTQ people as immoral corrupters of children. In some contexts, these actions usher in anti-LGBT legislation and, at the same time, bolster the political fortunes of authoritarian leaders.

This new form of anti-LGBTQ sentiment is codified in legislation that focuses on censoring public expressions of identity, including speech on sexual orientation and gender identity, justified under the pretext of “protecting children.” The Russian “gay propaganda” law is a classic example of political homophobia that curbs the rights of LGBTQ youth and has a broader, stifling effect on the public expression of identity.

It is only going to get worse!

As the middle class get squeezed anger grows and they look for a scapegoat. And we are it! We are the low hinging fruit.

Instead of the real culprits… the oligarchs who are sucking up all the money in the world. Wage that don’t keep up with inflation, unfettered monopolies, and price gouging with huge corporate profits!