Registros discursivos em disputa:

a circulação do “kit gay” entre mídia, política e religião na perspectiva da Linguística Aplicada indisciplinar

Abstract

This article analyzes the circulation of the term “kit gay” in Brazilian mainstream media, exploring how it was discursively constructed and mobilized in moral and electoral disputes in contemporary Brazil. Grounded in Applied Linguistics and Linguistic Anthropology, the study draws on the concepts of enregisterment (Agha, 2007) and metasemiosis (Gal, 2018) to investigate how signs circulate across distinct social arenas, reshaping meanings and producing ideological effects. The methodology consisted of textual trajectory mapping in journalistic texts published by Folha de S. Paulo and O Estado de S. Paulo between 2011 and 2020, resulting in a corpus of 198 texts. The findings indicate that the “kit gay” emerged as a discursive register through three interdependent processes: clasping, relaying, and grafting. Its circulation intensified during electoral cycles, aligning the sign with conservative moral agendas and anti-democratic discourses, often amplified by religious and political leaders and by the media itself. The study concludes that language, as a technology of power, plays a central role in consolidating truth regimes that structure bolsonarismo as a political-discursive project. The analysis highlights the urgent need for critical reflection on journalistic ethics and the performative effects of misinformation in the public sphere.