The Rise of the Anti-Gender Movement in Croatia and the 2013 Marriage Referendum

This study uses the 2013 Croatian marriage referendum to show how anti-gender activists successfully reframed LGBT rights and emerged as influential political actors. Our examination of newspaper LGBT frames in the period 2002–2013 situates the referendum framing in its broader discursive field. Our analysis shows that anti-gender activists negotiated new resonance for ‘old’ socially conservative issues by appropriating the human rights frame and eroding its credibility, and by seeming to disassociate themselves from morality frames. Our findings contribute to the literature on anti-gender mobilisations in Europe by identifying new framing strategies used by anti-gender actors in their efforts to bring about wider policy and societal changes.