The emergence of gender ideology® in colombia: when you’d rather have a dead son than a gay son

Abstract

This paper reflects, from a queer perspective, on the emer- gence of gender ideology® in Colombia in the context of the peace agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Government, as well as on the case of homophobic harassment that drove Sergio Urrego to suicide. On the one hand, gender ideology® is reviewed and an attempt is made to trace the registered trademark of that term, which is naturalized but which has a particular invention and purpose, reason why it was decided to include the registered trademark symbol: ®. Another goal is to understand how gender ideology® operates and how it was used in the “no” campaign of the referendum for the peace agreement in Havana to unite different conservative sectors against the gender perspective of the agreements. At the same time, the case of the death of Sergio Urre- go, which triggered the mass use of gender ideology®, is examined. The concept of frameworks, developed by Judith Butler in Frameworks of War, is used to understand how in certain contexts, such as in Sergio Urrego’s school, non- heterosexual lives do not count as lives and therefore are not worthy of protection.