Abstract
This paper identifies and discusses the psychological ploys employed by recent conservative and authoritarian movements in Brazil, particularly the School without Party movement, against topics like sexuality and gender, which are currently included as essential to school education. To do so, we sought to understand their cultural basis and how they are ideologically articulated to prevent school debate around these topics. By analyzing Bills 246/2019 and 1859/2015, we identified some conservative strategies that authoritatively delegitimize their inclusion in school education. Chief among them is the instrumentalization of religion, since it favors subordinating religious belief, mainly associated with traditional Christian moral conservatism, to authoritarian political discourse. Similar to the fascist movements in the 1930s United States that claimed an authoritarian and oppressive ordering of society by appealing to religious content, religious speech is currently instrumentalized to encourage social and political conservatism adherence and to justify deep-seated prejudices. Religion instrumentalization is used to justify upholding conservative values at school and in society, as well as to reiterate the monogamous heterosexual family model and patriarchy. Through such ploys, authoritarian and conservative movements, articulated around denying sexual and gender diversity, prevent the school from becoming a democratic and diverse environment.
Keywords:
School; Religion; Conservatism; Sexuality; Gender