Since 2010’s political battles around gender have mushroomed globally involving a varied gamut of religious and secular forces. These frays became particularly frequent and vicious in Latin America, as illustrated by the anti-gender campaigns during the Colombian Peace Referendum, the attack on law provision on gender based violence in Ecuador, the mobilization against Butler’s visit to Brazil, and the decision by the Bolivian Constitutional Court that stroke down the gender identity law. These flares take observers by surprise, but feminist IR literature has extensively examined how gender has been attacked since the 1990’s United Nations conferences and yet more directly by Vatican theological documents from the early 2000’s onwards. These are the core of campaigns that are both transnational and markedly contextual: “gender ideology” functions as an open signifier that can be adapted to local specific conditions. This paper will draw a cartography of global and local dynamics that fuel anti-gender frays underway in Latin America. It will provide an overview of statecraft gains achieved in recent years in respect to genders matters and examine the circumstance surrounding and actors involved in these glaring anti-gender battles. Lastly it will explore commonalities and differences with similar frays underway in other regions.
