LGBT activism toward equal marriage in Chile: public visibility, strategic litigation, and political endurance

Abstract

This article delves into the social, political and judicial processes that led Chile, a historically conservative country in terms of sexuality, gender and family, to approve a law recognizing marriage and parentage for same-sex couples in 2021. To this end, the empirical design combines 42 semi-structured interviews with activists, lawyers, judges, presidential advisor, and parents; 490 newspaper articles; 11 judicial records as well as the parliamentary discussions for 2 draft bills. Based on these data, we propose a genealogy of the Bill on Equal Marriage, which highlights both the political dynamics of the medium term - the post-dictatorship period - and of the short term - the ‘Chilean October’ of 2019. We analyze the articulation of three spaces of mobilization: in the media, in Courts, and in Parliament. Indeed, gay and lesbian activism has been able to articulate strategies in order to overcome the inherent blockages in each space and broaden its support. As for the justice system, we show the connexions between the national, inter- and supranational levels. Notably, strategic litigation in lower courts has used the international framing of LGBT rights as human rights. Moreover, the article shows that legal mobilization, which is usually approached in common law systems has proven to be an effective channel for influencing policy makers in the Chilean civil law system as well.