Human rights under dispute: (de)institutionalization and conflicts between the LGBTQIA+ movement and antigender activism in Brazil

Abstract

During the Jair Bolsonaro’s administration in the Brazilian federal government, the human rights ministry was infiltrated by networks of antigender activism that, in previous years, systematically opposed LGBTQIA+ rights affirmation policies. How did this process affect the institutionalization of the LGBTQIA+ movement and of the antigender activism in the field of human rights policies in the Brazilian federal government? To answer this question, we analyzed data about the transformations that occurred at this country’s human rights ministry during the past years in the following dimensions: its organizational structure, its programs and actions, its participatory institutions, and its budget design. Results show a double dynamic in which a partial and gradual deinstitutionalization of the LGBTQIA+ occurred aligned with the institutionalization of the antigender activism, legitimized by the mobilization of the category “family policies”. In dialogue with the Brazilian literature on social movements and institutionalization, we argue that these results point to the necessity of a relational-contentious approach to this subject, which enables us to identify the disputes between socio-state networks around the (de)institutionalization of public policies.