5. Political Mobilizations Regarding Gender and LGBT+: Poland, Germany, Spain, and Sweden

This chapter concentrates on the repercussions of gender and LGBT+ -related issues in socio-political areas, from the political mobilization of individuals and political parties to the advocacy of civil society actors that provide services and activate the citizenry. Together, these actors contribute to varying levels of societal in/exclusion that are traced over the past two decades for four specific case countries that represent various EU subregions. In Poland, Germany, Spain, and Sweden, gender and LGBT+ rights have become more salient, however, with diverging socio-political responses: while in Spain and Sweden political and civil society actors, by and large, have created stronger gender-friendly regimes, Germany and particularly Poland, confront backlash from specific socio-political sectors that jeopardize gender and LGBT+ inclusion. While civil society actors are critical to achieving more inclusive societies in the four case studies, political opposition to these rights has emerged in all of them with diverse results. Using various relevant gender indexes and public opinion data together with policy tracing, the country cases illustrate the diversity of inclusion outcomes and the underlying polarization within and among EU member states, with particular reference to the notion of ‘crises’ and ‘risks’ (of equality, patriarchal cultures, and families, among others).