Kuhar - Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe

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Selection and editorial matter Roman Kuhar and David Paternotte 2017

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ISBN:HB 978-1-7834-8999-2

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ISBN: 978-1-78660-001-1 (electronic)

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David Paternotte and Roman Kuhar

Piazza San Francesco, Bologna, Italy, 5 October 2014. A handful of people are standing on a square, two meters from each other, with a book in their hands. They read in silence for one hour. They claim to defend the freedom of expression and combat the destruction of the human and of civilization. Like them, a few thousand other citizens have gathered on the same day in more than 100 Italian cities. This group, called the Sentinelle in Piedi (Standing Guards), first appeared in 2013 to oppose the Scalfarotto Bill against homophobia. Since then, such rallies have mushroomed across Italy and have become one of the landmark modes of action of opponents to LGBT rights and gender ideology in the country. Participants in these vigils present themselves as the heirs of Gandhi or Socrates, that is, as the victims of political abuse, and members of a movement of resistance. Standing on a public square, they refer to other forms of citizen protests occurring at the time, such as the Arab Spring and the protesters in Istanbuls Taksim Square.

Kongresni trg, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 12 December 2015. Eight days before the second referendum on marriage equality in Slovenia. A group of about 70 people line up in straight lines with about two meters between each of them on one of Ljubljanas largest squares. They are reading a book in silence. The group is called Straarji (The Guards), and they present themselves as advocates for freedom of speech, thought and conscience. They are instructed not to engage in debate with other people and not to react to any provocation. The Guards claim to be sick of the fact that gender theory activists impose their own will and a way of life upon them. According to their own leaflet, they are the guards of a natural family as a union of a man, a woman and children and of matrimony union between a man and a woman. However, they did not want their action to be unheard: In a press statement they asked the media to report on the event, which was part of the referendum campaign.