The Destruction of the Heterosexual Family? The Discourse of Opponents of the Gender Mainstreaming Educational Curriculum in Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Abstract

The implementation of gender mainstreaming principles in the educational curriculum of the German Federal state Baden-Wurttemberg has caused protests that have gained significant attention in media. Using discourse analysis this article investigates how the media discourse of opponents constructs risks and dangers of gender mainstreaming. It will be shown that opponents perceive gender mainstreaming as a governmental hidden agenda aimed at destroying the heterosexual families by questioning the assumed “natural order” of hetero-normativity and patriarchy as the ruling ideology in public schools. Implying that harmful knowledge about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer (LGBTTIQ) ways of life would disturb the binary gender identity of pupils and sexualize them prematurely, gender mainstreaming is understood as the core mechanism to accomplish this hidden agenda implemented through the disciplinary power of schools. Referring to biological and religious arguments the opponents’ discourse is based on sexualizing non-heteronormative life by intermingling categories of gender and sexuality. Therefore, our findings imply that in order to support gender mainstreaming in society a greater public awareness for the difference between gender and sexuality is needed, so that bias of defining LGBTTIQ life through sexual practices becomes obvious to the audience of this discourse.