“Minorities Conform or Disappear”: Bolsonarism’s construction of the People and its impact in limiting LGBTQIA+ Rights

Frequently regarded as an inevitable outcome of the failure of existing democratic models to adequately represent certain segments of society, the populist phenomenon has resurfaced over the past two decades, exerting significant influence on elections across different nations and altering the political landscape. Far-right populist discourses have mobilized people’s sense of abandonment through a predominantly exclusionary language. Their appeal resonates especially among segments of the population who perceive the extension of rights to minorities as a direct threat to their own entitlements. In this article, we focus on the Brazilian case to examine how this sentiment is reflected in concrete legal actions regarding gender issues put forward by the Bolsonarist coalition in the Congress during Bolsonaro's presidency (2019-2022). Drawing from Laclau’s post-structuralist theory of populism, we examine Bolsonarism’s use of traditional family values and its opposition to “gender ideology” in shaping identities. We also explore how these identities are reinforced by legal and cultural norms through the State apparatus. Our main objective is to highlight the State's contribution to perpetuating values that ultimately restrict civil rights, particularly those impacting LGBTQIA+ communities. We argue that it leads to a constriction of citizenship, restricted to those who conform to Bolsonarism's conception of “the people”, thereby directly affecting democratic institutions and minority rights.