Abstract

MORAN FAUNDES, José Manuel. Conservative Catholic activism and scientific discourses on sexuality: cartography of an heterosexual scienceConservative Catholic activism and scientific discourses on sexuality: cartography of an heterosexual science. Soc. relig. [online]. 2012, vol.22, n.37. ISSN 1853-7081.

One of the recent strategies adopted by the Catholic Church to stop the achievements of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender movement, has been the organization of a Catholic activism that seeks to defend and consolidate conservative models of sexuality, using secular scientific discourses. This work presents the main points of this scientific discourse. For this purpose, I analyze documents published by Catholic institutions, as well as records of public interventions of Catholic actors associated with the scientific field. I selected documents produced in Argentina and Chile in the context of public discussions concerning the recognition of rights for same-sex couples. This allowed me to identify the commonalities of the discourses between two places where discussions on sexuality and rights have had a different intensity and prominence on the public agenda. Finally, I make a critical analysis of this discourse, highlighting the political metaphors that underlie it, and the ways in which a non-heterosexual otherness is constructed from specific notions of nature and normality, associating it to a pathological condition marked by a contamination and contagion logic.

Keywords : Argentina; Chile; Sexuality; Catholic Church; Science.

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