Sexuality, Law, and Religion in Latin America: Frameworks in Tension

Abstract

One challenge opened by contemporary sexual politics is to rethink the relations between religion and law in democratic contexts. The debate on the regulations of sexuality, reproduction or the family makes visible the complex interconnections between religious worldviews and the legal system. This article argues that in Latin America, secularization of law took the form of an imbrication process in which law traduces and conserves catholic sexual morality into secular regulations. Precisely, one challenge opened by contemporary sexual politics is to rethink the relations between religion and law in democratic contexts. The article offers an analysis of the ways in which stakeholders in conflict over sexual and reproductive rights in Latin America mobilize religion and the law to pursue their agendas. First, the article considers the main strategies implemented by the feminist and sexual diversity movements in order to overcome the power and influence of the Catholic Church on lawmaking processes. Although these movements tend to share an anti-clerical standpoint, they present a complex and dynamic construction of religion. Second, it presents different adaptions by Catholic sectors in defense of a natural sexual order. In their quest to influence state legal systems, these sectors deploy a dynamic and strategic understanding of religion and its impact upon public and legal debates. Building upon these considerations, the article contributes to the question of the complex articulations between religion and law in contemporary Latin America.