From the hardcore to the light: Insults and cordial homophobia in El Salvador

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the production of conservative homosexual discourses in El Salvador that have been issued within the constitutional reform process in order to prohibit same sex marriages. For this purpose, we analyzed sixty public positions registered in newspapers and digital media from 2003 to 2017, using the discourse analysis as methodology. Conservative speeches are those issued by representatives of power groups in the country that are contrary to the recognition of Sexual and Reproductive Rights as Human Rights. The production of speeches can be analyzed in two moments. The first one is the hardcore, recognizing the silence-taboo and public insult as cultural discursive devices to legitimize processes of discrimination. The second one is the light, represented in cordial homophobia as a discursive strategy and political weapon that encourages categories such as affection, tolerance, charity and fostering to deny and reject any type of recognition of rights for Salvadoran lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI).