Description
Controlling women’s, children’s and LGBTQ people’s sexuality has been part of exercising state power in different political regimes, including in the growing ‘anti-gender’ politics in some European states (Corrêa et al 2018; Graff & Korolczuk 2022). European countries where anti-gender politics is deployed at governmental level, are centralizing power and eliminating democratic processes (Roggeband & Krizsán 2020). New scholarship argues that anti-gender politics is a manifestation of democratic deficit and reinforces the autocratization of the state (Denkovski et al 2021). Recent political developments in Hungary demonstrate the importance of exploring the politics of childhood as part of anti-gender politics and strengthening autocratic power. The anti-gender political climate in Hungary contextualizes the current ‘sex panic’ and fear of ‘homosexual contagion’ (Lancaster 2011). This presentation seeks to explore the intersections of children’s rights, LGBT+ rights, child protection discourses and public education, aiming to map how anti-gender politics is deployed by an increasingly authoritarian political leadership in an attempt to control and regulate children’s sexualities. Recent examples of homo- and transphobic school curricula, laws, government politicians’ public communications and media discourse will be discussed, in order to demonstrate how exercising control over children’s sexualities work via education contents; governmental communication about childhood and sexuality; and restricting children’s/youth’s access to information about sexuality.
