“We don’t want rainbow terror”: religious and far-right sexual politics in Poland and Spain

Abstract

This chapter discusses why right-wing sexual politics have been more successful in Poland, while they have been mostly failing in Spain. The country-specific contexts are analysed in a broader historical and transnational frame of far-right ideological transfers. Despite the many similarities in Poland and in Spain, right-wing sexual politics differ with regard to the role of nationalism, the political influence of the Catholic Church and the impact of the legacy of fascism and communism, respectively. At the same time, anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ* actors in Poland and Spain use the transnational language and political strategies of the global far right. They apply strategies like victimization, creation of moral panic and the reframing of a confessional agenda in terms of freedom and rights for the nation, families and Catholics, while presenting gender equality and sexual liberation as expressions of “totalitarian” projects.