They Want to Authorize Homosexuality! (Hetero)sex(ual) Education and Gender in Dispute. Argentina, 1991-1997

Abstract

As at other times in the recent history of education in Argentina, sex education created strong and tense conflicts between modernizing forces and conservative ones. In this article we are interested in concentrating on studying the tensions between these two forces, focusing on the disputes around the inclusion of sexuality and the gender perspective within teacher training and the national curriculum during the 1990s. For this we explore positions, initiatives, and conflicts that took place in the orbit of the Ministry of Culture and Education (MCyE). We first address the formation of a commission established in 1991 for the writing of materials on AIDS and “sexuality education”, made up of religious “specialists” with recognition in the field of sex education. Second, we focus on the inclusion of gender perspectives, driven by the Program for Equal Opportunities for Women (PRIOM, 1991-1995). In a third section, we focus on the context of curriculum reform (1994-1997), in which the PRIOM included the word “gender” in the initial versions of the Common Basic Contents (CBC) for Basic General Education (EGB) and the Polimodal levels. Subsequently, we reconstruct the criticisms of Catholic agents to the initial versions of the curricular change. Finally, we analyse the final versions of the curricular texts to indicate the hegemony of conservative discourses.