Legislating in favor of regression

PL 504/2020 and the ban on LGBTQIAPN+ advertising in the State of São Paulo

Abstract

This article proposes an analysis, based on the Theory of Social Representations, of the full text of PL 504/2020, which circulated in the Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo (Alesp) in that year, which dealt with what was called, in the legal text, prohibiting LGBTQIAPN+ advertising. Assuming that the concept of homosexuality is a social construction, it was possible to identify in the text of the bill two social representations that justify its existence, sodomy and pederasty, which historically blame, pathologize and criminalize LGBTQIAPN+ subjects. After analyzing the entire body of the legal text, it is clear that, even with PL 504/2020 being barred at Alesp, it generates a social impact when its discussions. The logic of maintaining the State, through the discourse in favor of the traditional family and protection of children, is used as a device to establish social panic in an attempt to keep the extreme right in power. PL 504/2020, which comes in the wake of the unconstitutional 2019 School Without Party Project, is thus characterized as another attempt to delegitimize the democratic rule of law and can be understood as a harbinger of the ideology of the upcoming 2022 election campaign. The prohibition of visibility and dialogue around gender and sexual orientation issues affects schools, their content and functioning, and constitutes an obstacle to the principle of citizenship education promulgated by the 1996 LDB.