Different Colors of the Same Rainbow? The Polarization of Gender Issues and its Campaign Potential

Abstract

In general, support for gender equality and LGBTIQ+ has increased in the past decades. Current studies suggest a broad overall endorsement. However, gender-related issues have become increasingly politicized and publicly contested in recent years. Especially the political and media debate has intensified and right-wing populist and radical right parties campaign against a so-called “genderism”. Against this backdrop, a common perception is that all kinds of issues revolving around gender conflate into a single, overarching discourse about gender and sexuality that is antagonistically polarized between a supportive and a dismissive camp. What remains unclear is whether this form of discursive polarization on gender-related issues reso-nates with public opinion. Based on data from the German Social Cohesion Panel from 2022, we can show that there is a need to differentiate the debate and conceptually separate two distinct dimensions of gender issues: while binary issues, i.e. issues that concern equality between men and women, receive overwhelming support from the German population, non-heteronormative issues, i.e. issues that concern LGBTIQ+, are viewed with great skepticism. Accordingly, due to the high support of binary gender issues, there hardly seems to be any room for political mobilization on them. This is completely different with regard to non-heteronormative issues. Right-wing populist parties like the German AfD stand out in attract-ing voters who oppose the promotion of equality for gender and sexual minorities.