BETWEEN LAW AND HOSTILITY: ANTI-TRANS LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS AND THE FAR RIGHT’S INSTITUTIONAL REACTION IN BRAZIL (2010–2024)

Abstract

This article analyzes the anti-trans legislative offensive in Brazil between 2010 and 2024, focusing on the far right’s performance in Congress. Based on a systematic review of Bills (PLs) and Legislative Decree Projects (PDLs), 131 proposals related to gender and sexuality were identified, of which 89 were classified as hostile to trans people. The article mobilizes the concept of policy hostility (Bustikova, 2020) to understand how institutional advances in rights act as triggers for normative backlash, particularly through revocatory instruments. The results demonstrate that legislative hostility against trans people is not episodic, but rather a structuring axis of far-right strategies, combining moral conservatism, exclusionary populism, and institutional instrumentalization. The Brazilian case reveals specificities: the centrality of the Legislature as the main arena of hostility and the intensive use of PDLs to overturn recent achievements. It is argued that this offensive produces a “grammar of revocation,” creating a regime of precarious citizenship in which rights remain constantly vulnerable. This study contributes by highlighting the normative dimension of anti-gender politics and suggesting conceptual adjustments to the notion of policy hostility in Latin American contexts.