The role of religion in anti-gender politics from below: a visual discursive analysis on social media

In the context of an increased polarization in politics, gender and sexuality became highly politicized. After the emergence of the first anti-gender campaigns in Europe in the mid-2000s, mobilizations took place in several countries around the world, against sexual and reproductive rights, LGBTQI rights, children’s rights, gender, laws and policies against hate speech and discrimination. Anti-gender mobilizations contributed to a reversal and dismantling of policies and institutions for emancipatory politics of gender in various locations, being part of larger trends of de-democratization and backsliding. The expanding literature on anti-gender campaigns has allowed us to gain significant insights about the larger political project of those involved in anti-gender politics. After an initial emphasis on the role of religion, scholars shifted focus on the issues at stake in anti-gender politics and its relation to extreme-right and/or populist ideologies and parties. Considering the contemporary interplay between secularization and de-secularization trends, reflected in the versatile discourse of anti-gender actors whose politics escalated recently, it seems essential to inquire more thoroughly about the role of religion within the anti-gender campaigns. Thus, the aim of this study is to untangle the intersection between religion and anti-gender politics, by targeting civil society actors and their digital mobilization – one of their principal strategies together with public demonstrations, advocacy, litigation or petitions and citizen’s initiatives. Using a visual and discursive analysis in the tradition of discourse historical approach (DHA), this paper combines visual rhetoric and visual iconography in a case study, in order to explore how anti-gender actors use religious symbols and content in their social media narratives. What kind of argument repertoire takes shape in their communication through social media? How is religion mobilised discursively by anti-gender actors in relation to different categories of issues targeted: (1) sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR); (2) LGBTQI rights; (3) children’s rights; (4) gender; (5) laws and policies for equality and inclusion? In Romania, the consolidation of a specific framework against “gender ideology” was occasioned by the 2015 citizens' initiative and the subsequent 2018 constitutional referendum, to modify the definition of the family in order to prevent the legalisation of marriage equality. At the base of the aforementioned initiative was the Coalition for the family (CpF) which collapsed after the invalidation of the referendum and in its place remained the Civic Platform Together (PCI), much larger than the CpF. In 2020, anti-gender mobilizations aimed to restrict sex education in schools and to ban references to gender. While the affinity relationship between anti-gender mobilizations, in particular the CpF and religious actors has been taken into account, the way in which religion has been mobilized discursively by anti-gender actors has been less studied. Focusing on the role of religion in the digital mobilisation of anti-gender actors, the empirical material of this study will be gathered from social media platforms, particularly Facebook – being the most used platform. Informed by a multimodal perspective, the analysis pays special attention to the interaction between text and visuals in the process of meaning creation.