One of the most visible aspects of the Bolsonaro government, in Brazil, is the opposition of its members to what has been called “gender ideology”.

The term, according to Judith Butler, was created by Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, as a reaction to the Beijing World Conference on Women, organised by the United Nations in 1995, which pointed out that women’s inequality is a structural problem that could only be addressed from an ‘integral gender perspective’.

In 1997, the term began to be used in Catholic writings and has been used consistently since then, first as “gender perspective” and then, from 2000 onwards, as “gender ideology”. This debate reached Latin America during the 5th General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops (Celam) whose final report states that: “Among the presuppositions that weaken and belittle family life, we find gender ideology, according to which each one can choose his sexual orientation, without taking into account the differences given by human nature. This has led to legal changes that seriously harm the dignity of marriage, respect for the right to life and the identity of the family.”

Full article at Wry Ronin’s website. Date of publication: 05/04/2019