Chamber exchanges topics such as education and economy for identity guidelines

Until February 7, 2001, the word “homophobia” had never been pronounced in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies. It was when congresswoman Maria do Carmo Lara (PT-MG) took the podium to lament the murder of a young homosexual in São Paulo, registered a year earlier. “It is necessary that this House, through the Human Rights Commission, express to the Brazilian public opinion the repudiation of any and all forms of homophobia”, she said. Since then, another 821 speeches have referred to the term.

The expression “transphobia” only appeared for the first time in 2009, in a speech by Janete Capiberibe (PSB-AP). After that, it was another three years until the second mention, by Deputy Luiz Couto (PT-PB). Today, the complete list already adds up to 73 pronouncements with reference to the subject.

These are indications of a broader trend. The report of People’s Gazette analyzed the speeches made in plenary in the last 20 years. The result shows a clear trend: themes previously considered central, such as crime, poverty and corruption, are occupying less and less space; at the same time, mentions of the identity agenda and abortion have never been as frequent as in the current composition of the Chamber, which took office in February of this year.

For example: in three and a half months, the deputies who took office in 2023 have already mentioned the word “homophobia” in plenary more times than in all of 2022. There were 23 speeches mentioning this word, compared to 15 last year, in the same period. Between February 1 (when the legislature was sworn in) and May 16 of this year, 27 speeches on the floor included the term “transphobia”. In the same period of 2020, 2021 and 2022, the topic was completely absent from plenary microphones. Speeches referring to abortion also increased: there were 7 in 2020, 9 in 2021, 36 in 2022 and 40 this year. The sequence of mentions of racism followed a similar path: from 24 (2020), 20 (2021) and 44 (2022), to 74 in 2023.

Most pronouncements referring to identity agendas come from left-wing parliamentarians, but there are also mentions from right-wing deputies. Recently, for example, deputy Deltan Dallagnol (Podemos-PR) warned of the risk that the Fake News PL (or Censorship PL) ends up punishing people who disagree with the radical LGBT agenda, on the grounds that this disagreement constitutes transphobia .

Traditional themes lose space

Although they still carry more weight than identity agendas in plenary debates, more traditional agendas have lost space. Between 2022 and 2023 alone, the terms “privatization”, “tax burden”, “corruption”, “education”, “poverty” and “SUS” had drops ranging from 28.5% to 92.1%.

Another way to measure the change in deputies’ interest is by looking at the relationship between speeches with an identity agenda and those dealing with general themes. In 2022, between February and mid-May, the ratio was 11 to one: on average, every 11 speeches on education, crime, corruption or other “traditional” topics was accompanied by a speech with an identity agenda. This proportion was the lowest ever recorded at that time. But 2023 went much further: the ratio is one to 3.3. In other words, the proportional weight of identity themes has never been greater.

This is due both to the increase in mentions of topics such as homophobia and the reduction of pronouncements dealing with traditional agendas. For example: in 5 years, taking into account the period from February 1st to May 16th, speeches mentioning education went from 956 to 223. Corruption fell from 326 to 116. Crime, from 222 to 73.

annual comparison

A comparison with the full data for recent years (rather than the February-May period) allows for a broader understanding of this pattern. Although there are important swings, the long-term trend is clear. For example: between 2002 and 2022, mentions of “racism” grew by 90.5%. Machismo and misogyny, together, increased by 775%. Abortion, 290%. It is impossible to measure the increase in “homophobia” and “transphobia” in percentage terms because, in 2002, neither expression was mentioned in the plenary of the Chamber.

In the same 20-year period, speeches referring to poverty (46.7% decrease), tax burden (56.3% reduction) and crime (71.8% decrease) fell. From 2012 to 2022, there is also a visible decrease in mentions of other traditional themes, such as education (45.2% decrease) and corruption (32.7% decrease).

Influence of networks

The change in the terms of the political debate is, in a way, natural. Society’s demands are not static, and Congress reflects this movement.

But two phenomena help to explain the shift in focus and the loss of interest in traditional agendas. One is the adoption, by the left, of an agenda that left aside the economic aspect to focus on issues of “identity” and “minority rights”. The other is the emergence of social networks as a means of disseminating parliamentary activity, which seems to have encouraged deputies to focus on controversial issues or those that are more likely to generate interest in the virtual environment. The tax burden and management of the SUS are probably not at the top of the list of most explosive issues. The advancement of issues such as transphobia and abortion is curious because the Chamber has not voted on any relevant project on gender transition or abortion in recent years.

In the opinion of Leonardo Paz, a researcher at the Center for Prospecting and International Intelligence at FGV (Fundação Getúlio Vargas), the process of changing the focus of parliamentarians is not restricted to Brazil. He claims that the adoption of progressive agendas on issues such as sexuality and abortion by the left and the subsequent reaction from conservative groups help explain the phenomenon. He agrees, however, that social networks potentiate the emptying of the deeper debate. In his view, the Brazilian Congress has many examples of this phenomenon. “There is a group of congressmen at the moment whose agenda is identity and not propositional. And there is a lack of understanding of how the public machine works”, he says.

According to Leonardo Paz, the realignment also requires a redefinition of the traditional labels of left and right, which used to be divided mainly on economic themes. “We used to imagine that the fundamental aspect of individual preferences was economic. But, especially after 2018, we begin to see that the issue of conservative or progressive ideology is as or more relevant than economics,” he says.

Doctor in Political Science and professor at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), Manoel Leonardo Wanderley Duarte Santos believes that the internet bears part of the blame for the change in the themes addressed in plenary. “To a large extent, the content generated by a speech in the Plenary has been immediately converted into content broadcast on the networks, and it does not seem absurd to think that some deputies are not exactly speaking to their peers or to the political parties in the Plenary”, he says. .

For Santos, the consequences of this behavior by parliamentarians are negative — since persuasion is no longer an objective. What remains is the exchange of provocations and accusations to win the voters’ applause. “It doesn’t exactly seem like a dialogue based on more sophisticated arguments, with the objective of informing and offering an alternative mediation in the decision-making process in parliament. The important thing now seems to be more ‘sealing’ than contributing to the debate”, he says.