Towards New Research Agendas in Latin America in Times of the Green Tide

Abstract

Since 1980,women’s, feminist and lgbtmovements/organizations haveplayed a very important role in Latin America, since they entangled their demands concerning sexual freedomwith a wider human rights agenda and other social movements that claimed for social justice. The beginning of the twenty-first century opened aprocess of transformationwith the vastmajority of the region governed by executives that identified themselves in the left of the political spectrum. In some cases, this “Pink Tide” engaged with sexual movements and supported sexual and reproductive rights advances that were also challenged by conservative actors (Friedman, 2018). The role played by conservative religious activisms in sexual politics, specifically the obstacles they established regarding divorce, comprehensive sexual education, same-sex marriage, contraception and abortion, has encouraged the emergence of several studies exploring thesemovements’ public intervention strategies. Some of these studies demonstrated how the secularization of law has been established through an imbrication process in which law translates and conserves Catholic sexual morality into secular regulations (Vaggione, 2018). More recently, the globalization of anti-gender movements that battle against “gender ideology” led to research on their involvement in national politics and their performances in the public space (Sexual PolicyWatch, 2020). Argentina is a clear example of this process with a number of legislations and public policies regarding comprehensive sex education, gender identity, equal marriage, contraception and abortion, which were finally legalized in December 2020. In 2018, while the National Congress debated this issue, thousands of people across the country organized massive public demonstration and started to wear the green handkerchief that is the symbol of the National Campaign for the Right to a Safe, Legal and Free Abortion, an object that is also connected with the white handkerchief of Madres de Plaza de Mayo. This movement was called the Green Tide (Marea Verde) and has been expanded