00:00Today we're going to prepare a gender ideology. The recipe isn't difficult; we need a discussion about rights, a real concern.
00:06For children and families, a little fear and misinformation, and of course a sufficiently mysterious enemy
00:13so that no one can explain what it really is.
00:16We mix it all together, repeat it for many years, and voilà, we have one of the most successful political terms of recent times.
00:22decades.
00:23Because you have surely heard about gender ideology, which is in schools, which wants to change
00:29the children, which threatens the family, which is involved in sex education, abortion, same-sex marriage,
00:34adoption by same-sex couples and by transgender people.
00:37Anyway, apparently this lady has a very busy schedule.
00:41But what exactly is gender ideology?
00:44It is not a scientific theory, it is not an academic category recognized by gender studies, it is not a law,
00:50It is not a public policy.
00:51And it's not a secret program hidden away in the basements of the United Nations either.
00:56So where did it come from?
00:57Well, the story is long and I'm going to tell it to you because this is where the recipe gets good.
01:02And to understand it, we have to start with something important.
01:04This is not the first great abstract concept, nor the great supposed threat invented by some sectors.
01:09So where did it come from?
01:11In the United States, for example, during the 1920s, some religious movements presented Darruinism as a threat to the
01:18morality and society.
01:19In the 60s and 70s another enemy appeared: secular humanism.
01:23The logic was more or less the same.
01:25Cultural changes, scientific advances, or changes in rights were presented as something that would destroy the family, the
01:32religion and social order.
01:33After that, the enemy changed its name and it was the genre's turn.
01:36It happened in the 1990s, just as the conversation about women's rights began to change.
01:42In 1994, at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo,
01:47Discussions stopped focusing solely on how many people were born or how to control population growth.
01:54And they began to talk about people as subjects of rights.
01:57And yes, this included women.
01:59Imagine the audacity.
02:01They talked about sexual and reproductive health, contraceptive methods, education, and something that for many people still seems
02:08revolutionary.
02:09That women should be able to make decisions about their bodies and their life plans.
02:14A year later, in 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women took place in Beijing.
02:19There they discussed violence against women, political participation, economic autonomy, and access to education.
02:25and the need for public policies to recognize the inequalities that affect women.
02:30And here comes a fundamental ingredient of this recipe.
02:34Not everyone was happy with those advances.
02:37Certain sectors, especially those linked to the Vatican and religious movements in the United States and Europe,
02:43They began to interpret these discussions as a threat.
02:46And they presented them as an attack on the family, religion, and social order.
02:50And that's how the expression "gender ideology" began to circulate.
02:54Pay attention, because this is important.
02:56He didn't appear because someone discovered a new ideology.
02:59The expression began to be used to lump together feminism, sexual and reproductive rights,
03:05sex education, sexual diversity, marriage equality, and women's autonomy
03:10They could suddenly become one and the same.
03:13And one single thing can be much easier to combat than 20 different debates, don't you think?
03:19Because it's not the same to sit down and discuss what content comprehensive sex education should have,
03:23how to prevent sexual violence against children, or what it means to guarantee the rights of LGBTIQ+ people.
03:30That's complicated.
03:31We need to read, research, and discuss.
03:33But saying, "they want to impose gender ideology on us," is much faster.
03:37The expression began to travel through different countries and adapted to each context.
03:42In some places it appeared in the debate on same-sex marriage, in others against sex education.
03:47In Peru and Argentina, for example, it was used in educational matters in schools.
03:52In Brazil, during Jair Bolsonaro's government, information was disseminated about an alleged gay kit,
03:57which according to certain sectors was being distributed in schools.
04:00And no, it wasn't being distributed in any gay kit.
04:03But the story worked, and Colombia, of course, had its own version.
04:07We have to travel to 2016.
04:09That year, the Constitutional Court ordered a review of the student handbooks in schools.
04:13to ensure that there was no discrimination.
04:16The decision was related to the case of Sergio Urrego,
04:19A 17-year-old boy took his own life after suffering discrimination and persecution at his school.
04:24being gay.
04:25Basically, the Court said that such a situation could not be repeated
04:28and that it was necessary to review what was happening in educational institutions.
04:32A very serious case of discrimination had occurred
04:34and the State had to guarantee that schools were safe spaces for all students.
04:40But suddenly another story began to circulate.
04:42That the Ministry of Education was distributing some booklets
04:44that they wanted to convert the children and that an ideology was being imposed.
04:48Images from a gay erotic comic were even presented.
04:51which were presented as if they were part of the Ministry's educational material.
04:55And guess what?
04:56I wasn't part of it.
04:57But once false information starts circulating,
04:59Denying it is like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.
05:03And within weeks, on August 10, 2016,
05:06Massive marches took place across the country
05:10against the primers and the supposed gender ideology.
05:13That year he also appeared in one of the most important political debates in Colombia,
05:17the plebiscite on the peace agreements.
05:19The agreements included a gender approach that recognized
05:22something that is widely documented today.
05:25The armed conflict affected women and LGBTIQ+ people differently.
05:29There were specific acts of violence directed against them.
05:32The gender approach sought to recognize those differences
05:36to ensure that the victims were compensated and protected.
05:40But again the conversation changed.
05:42For some sectors, this was being discussed as gender ideology.
05:45And so a term that had emerged as a reaction to advances in women's rights
05:49He finished very comfortably in one of the most important political debates in the country.
05:54Since then, it's been appearing everywhere.
05:56Sex education, gender ideology.
05:58Same-sex marriage, gender ideology.
06:01Transgender rights, gender ideology.
06:03Abortion, gender ideology.
06:06And to use those words as an absolute truth,
06:08Even if we don't know what we're talking about, it has real consequences.
06:12We're not the ones saying it.
06:13The United Nations warned that the use of this type of speech
06:17It serves to spread misinformation and reinforce prejudices.
06:20In a report presented in 2023, Special Rapporteur Irene Kahn
06:23documented how in different countries women and LGBTIQ+ people,
06:27They have been attacked under the accusation of promoting the alleged gender ideology.
06:31It also showed how this discourse has been used to restrict access to information
06:36in sexual and reproductive rights.
06:38Because words ultimately influence public policy,
06:41in schools, in access to healthcare, and in the way a society understands
06:45who deserves to have rights and who does not.
06:47Now there's something that needs clarifying.
06:49Not everyone who uses this expression is consciously trying to spread misinformation.
06:54Many people believe it really exists because they have been hearing this in church for years,
06:59on television, on social media, or in political speeches.
07:02An idea can be repeated so many times that it ends up seeming like a fact.
07:06So, the next time you hear about gender ideology,
07:09Before we get scared, argue in the comments, or imagine a secret feminist meeting
07:14organizing the destruction of the Western world or the homosexualizing ray,
07:18Let's ask a simple question.
07:20What exactly are we talking about?
07:22And if the answer ends up being sex education to prevent violence in children,
07:26women's rights, equality, or the recognition of LGBTIQ+ people,
07:30So perhaps the problem was never a mysterious ideology.
07:34We're talking about rights.
07:35Because after reviewing the entire recipe, it becomes clear that the so-called gender ideology
07:40It has a history, a history of debate about rights,
07:43from sectors that opposed those advances,
07:45of false information that traveled from one country to another
07:48and of a sufficiently broad expression to fit within it
07:51everything that some people consider a threat.
07:55Thank you!
07:56Thank you!
07:56Thank you!
