Contestations over Greece’s marriage equality act: dog whistles, conspiracy theories, and anti-gender aesthetics

The enactment of Greece’s Equality in Civil Marriage bill in 2024 marked a historic advancement for LGBTQI+ rights, expanding the legal and familial recognition of same-sex couples. However, this legislation also incited polarized debates and intensified anti-gender rhetoric. This paper investigates the mobilization tactics and aesthetics of opposition to the bill, focusing on dog-whistling rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and performances of the gender order in parliamentary debates, social media, and public demonstrations. Situating these reactions within transnational anti-gender movements, it further examines humour and sarcasm as strategies for mainstreaming hate speech and discrimination. It also considers how strategies drawn from transnational anti-gender movements are adapted to the specific political, cultural and religious context of Greece. Approaching the politicization of gender as a struggle over the gender order, the article argues that the legislation introduced a partial liberalization of Greece’s legal and familial regime, while its opponents sought to reverse this transformation by pushing the gender order towards an earlier and more rigid organization of gender roles, kinship and reproduction.