This chapter presents a framework for understanding the consequences of hard-right electoral breakthrough for the framing of homosexuality and LGBT rights. It begins by describing the extant framings of homosexuality under late communism in Poland and the Czech Republic. It then compares how the differing electoral success of hard-right political parties over the course of the EU accession process led to differing degrees of reframing homosexuality in both countries. In Poland, hard-right mobilization transformed the framing of LGBT rights by linking them with EU accession, which it portrayed as a threat to national identity. Because the Czech Republic did not experience hard-right backlash, the predominant framing of LGBT rights did not become as closely identified with the EU. The final part of the chapter moves from framing contests to frame resonance by presenting a quantitative content analysis of LGBT issues in both countries’ press from 1990 through 2012.
Coming full circle? Differential empowerment in Croatia's EU accession process
