‘First Our Children, Then Our Gender’: Anti-Gender Mobilization in Slovenia

Slovenia was one of the first European countries in which anti-gender actors established themselves as an important political force influencing debates and decisions on equality politics. The first anti-gender mobilizations emerged as a reaction to the attempt to legalize marriage equality in 2012 and 2015. In both cases, anti-gender actors succeeded in putting the legislation to a public referendum, where it was subsequently rejected. This makes Slovenia the only European country where a referendum on marriage equality has been held and rejected twice (Kuhar, 2017 , 224). However, in the summer of 2022, Slovenia also became the first Eastern European country to pass a legislative amendment allowing marriage equality, including the right of same-sex partners to adopt children (Kuhar, 2022 ).