The anti-gender movement is an international movement that opposes what it refers to as "gender ideology",[1] "gender theory",[1] or "genderism", terms which cover a variety of issues, and do not have a coherent definition. Members of the anti-gender movement are largely on the right-wing and far-right political spectrum, such as right-wing populists, social conservatives, and Christian fundamentalists.[2] It has been linked to a shift away from liberal democracy and towards right-wing populism.[3] Anti-gender rhetoric has seen increasing circulation in trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) discourse since 2016. Different members of the anti-gender movement variously oppose some LGBT rights, some reproductive rights, government gender policies, gender equality, gender mainstreaming, and gender studies academic departments. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has linked the anti-gender movement to the risk of "extreme violence" against the LGBTQI+ community. UN Women has described the anti-gender, gender-critical and men's rights movements as extreme anti-rights movements that "use hateful propaganda and disinformation to target and attempt to delegitimize people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and sex characteristics."
The term gender ideology has been described by academics Stefanie Mayer and Birgit Sauer as an "empty signifier", and by Agnieszka Graff as a "great name for all that conservative Catholics despise". The idea of gender ideology has been described by some as a moral panic, or a conspiracy theory,[1] as it alleges that there is a secret cabal out to undermine society.[4] A report by the European Parliament linked the rise of the anti-gender movement in Europe to disinformation campaigns that are sponsored in large part by Russia.
The movement derives from Catholic theology and can be dated to the late 20th century, but the protests that brought the movement to attention did not start until around 2012–2013. Besides Roman Catholics, anti-gender rhetoric is used by other Christians, Confucians, Hindus, Jews, and Muslims. Gender researcher Andrea Pető states that the anti-gender movement is not a form of classical anti-feminism but instead "a fundamentally new phenomenon that was launched to establish a new world order".
In non-English speaking countries, many anti-gender activists avoid using vernacular translations of the word gender in favor of the English word to promote the idea that gender is a foreign concept. The concept of gender ideology does not have a coherent definition and covers a variety of issues; for this reason, it has been described by academics Stefanie Mayer and Birgit Sauer as an "empty signifier" and by Agnieszka Graff as a catch-all term "for all that conservative Catholics despise".
The term gender ideology and related terms gender theory and genderism, used interchangeably, are not equivalent to the academic discipline of gender studies, within which significant controversies and disagreements exist. Anti-gender proponents are often unaware of these debates and disagreements. Elizabeth Corredor writes: "gender ideology serves as both a political and epistemological counterclaim to emancipatory conceptions of gender, sex, and sexuality". She adds that the anti-gender movement combines "gender ideology" rhetoric with attempts to exploit the existing divisions within LGBT and feminist movements. The movement accuses various actors of being bearers of "gender ideology", including "liberal, green or leftist politicians, women's rights activists, LGBT activists, gender policy officers of public administrations, and gender studies scholars".
There are various theories about when and where the anti-gender movement originated.
Some scholars studying the anti-gender movement date its origins to 1990s discussions within the Catholic Church to counter the results of the United Nations' 1994 International Conference on Population and Development and the 1995 World Conference on Women, following which the UN began to recognize sexual and reproductive rights. The Holy See feared that this recognition would lead to abortion being seen as a human right, delegitimization of motherhood, and the normalization of homosexuality. The term gender "was understood by the Holy See as a strategic means to attack and destabilize the natural family". In 1997, American anti-abortion journalist Dale O'Leary, who is affiliated to the Opus Dei, wrote a book titled The Gender Agenda: "the Gender Agenda sails into communities not as a tall ship, but as a submarine, determined to reveal as little of itself as possible". In Catholic thought, the concept of gender ideology emerged from John Paul II's theology of the body, in which the sexes are held to be different and complementary. Although the ideas of the anti-gender movement were developed by 2003, protests related to the movement first emerged in some European countries around 2012–2013. Although it is still promoted by Catholic actors, the anti-gender movement spread more generally throughout the right-wing by 2019.
Alternately, the anti-gender movement has been dated to the early 1980s when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the later Pope Benedict XVI, noticed that feminist books arguing that gender was socially constructed were bestsellers in Germany and noticed changes in German law allowing transgender people to legally change their gender. Researcher Mary Anne Case therefore argues that "Trans rights claims were, together with feminist claims, thus a foundational component, not a recent addition, to the Vatican's sphere of concern around 'gender' and to the focusing of that concern on developments in secular law."[5]
See main article: Gender-critical feminism.
Bassi and LaFleur note that "the trans-exclusionary feminist (TERF) movement and the so-called anti-gender movement are only rarely distinguished as movements with distinct constitutions and aims."[6] Pearce et al. posits that the concept of "gender ideology" long employed by the anti-gender movement "saw increasing circulation in trans-exclusionary radical feminist discourse" from around 2016.[7] Claire Thurlow noted that "despite efforts to obscure the point, gender critical feminism continues to rely on transphobic tropes, moral panics and essentialist understandings of men and women. These factors also continue to link trans-exclusionary feminism to anti-feminist reactionary politics and other 'anti-gender' movements."[8] Judith Butler said that "the anti-gender ideology movement should be considered a neo-fascist phenomenon" and cautioned those on the left against joining forces with the movement.[9]
A report commissioned by the European Parliament found that the rise of the anti-gender movement in Europe was linked to a large degree by funding from disinformation campaigns that are sponsored in large part by Russia[10] and other far-right Christian rights movements.[11]
Key proponents of the anti-gender movement include Dale O'Leary, Michel Schooyans, Tony Anatrella, Gabriele Kuby, and . According to Łukasz Wawrowski, it is not possible to have a scientific discourse between gender studies scholars and anti-gender proponents, because for the former, gender is a scientific concept that can be researched and falsified, whereas anti-gender proponents derive their arguments from transcendent truths handed down by God, which are not subject to empirical verification.
In the European Parliament, the strong election results of national parties such as the Italian Lega Nord, the British Brexit Party (having left parliament on 31 January 2020), the Polish Law and Justice, the Hungarian Fidesz, and the French Rassemblement National contributed to a surge of the anti-gender movement. Most of these MEPs belong to the right-wing populist and nationalist Identity and Democracy (ID) or the European Conservatives and Reformers (ECR) parliamentary groups. However, there are also members of the European Parliament representing these views within the European People’s Party (EPP) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) groups.[2]
Members of the anti-gender movement oppose some reproductive rights, particularly abortion, as well as LGBT rights, especially same-sex marriage, along with some campaigns against gender-based violence. They may also campaign against anti-bullying programs, sex education in schools, and gender studies in higher education. According to Kováts, not all the movements fitting under the "anti-gender" label (by opposing "gender" or "gender ideology") are overtly anti-feminist or anti-LGBT, and the anti-gender movement is a novel phenomenon distinct from previous anti-feminism and homophobia. The anti-gender movement is not synonymous with the far-right, as not all far-right movements espouse anti-gender views, and anti-gender themes extend beyond the far-right.
The anti-gender movement often uses the term "gender ideology". Anti-gender activists may portray the European Union and other international organizations as manipulated by several lobbies, such as American billionaires, Cultural Marxists, Freemasons, feminists, the LGBTQ+ lobby, and/or Jews.[1] To promote the idea that gender is a foreign concept imposed by a secret cabal of corrupt elites, they often use the English word gender, rather than a translation into the local language. Proponents present themselves as the defenders of the freedoms of speech, thought, and conscience against the "gender ideology", which they label as "totalitarian".
Some in the anti-gender movement consider "gender ideology" to be a totalitarian ideology. This is allegedly pushed by a secret cabal of corrupt elites or foreign entities (such as the European Union, World Health Organization, or United Nations) for the purpose of weakening, undermining, or destroying families, the Catholic Church, the nation, and/or Western civilization.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said in 2024 that the "anti-gender movement" poses a threat of "extreme violence" that could target the LGBTQI+ community.[12]
According to sociologists Roman Kuhar and David Paternotte, "the invention of 'gender ideology' is closely connected to debates within the Catholic Church". Pope Francis has stated that "gender ideology" would undermine the Catholic Church's position on gender complementarity, comparing it to nuclear weapons, and said it was one of the "Herods that destroy, that plot designs of death, that disfigure the face of man and woman, destroying creation".[13] In 2019, the Catholic Church released the first major document dealing specifically with "gender ideology", which states that there are only two biologically determined genders or sexes. According to Corredor,
The anti-gender movement is closely related to right-wing populism, nationalism, and the Christian right. According to Kuhar and Paternotte, "anti-gender campaigns are [not] the direct consequence of the right-wing populist wave, but the shift towards the Right reinforces these campaigns and provides them with new supporters who took over a concept of 'gender ideology' which shares some ideological structures with right-wing populist ideology". In line with their populist framing, referendums are often used to secure the outcomes desired by the anti-gender movement.
UN Women has described the anti-gender, gender-critical and men’s rights movements as anti-rights movements that have taken attempts to "frame equality for women and LGBTIQ+ people as a threat to so-called 'traditional' family values [...] to new extremes" and that "use hateful propaganda and disinformation to target and attempt to delegitimize people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and sex characteristics."[14]
It is disputed the extent to which the anti-gender movement is a reaction to events and other movements, or a proactive movement attempting to create social change. Hande Eslen-Ziya argues that the anti-gender movement relies on what she calls "troll science", that she describes as "(distorted) scientific arguments moulded into populist discourse, creating an alternative narrative on the conceptions of gender equality".[15]
An EU-funded research project into the anti-gender movement titled RESIST examined anti-gender rhetoric in parliamentary debates and media coverage in Hungary, Poland and the United Kingdom, and found that key actors in promoting and perpetuating anti-gender politics are primarily "men in the conservative and radical/extreme right in Europe," and that media played a roled in "deliberately stoking up a damaging moral panic targeting transgender identities" that makes transgender people the subject of “relentless ‘debate’ about the legitimacy of their rights and lives”.[16] [17]
According to Marta Rawłuszko, the anti-gender movement is, in part, a backlash against the devolution of power from democratically elected national governments to unelected equality bodies and international organizations, such as the European Union, which demand changes. Because these policies are not approved by voters or their elected representatives, they generate a democratic deficit. She notes that "gender equality policies have been implemented without engaging a wider audience or public debate".
However, Paternotte argues that picturing the anti-gender movement as a "backlash" is "conceptually flawed, empirically weak and politically problematic", because comparative research has shown that in different countries, the anti-gender activism is "sparked by extremely different issues".[18]
The idea of gender ideology has been described as a moral panic or conspiracy theory. According to two political psychologists writing for The Conversation, the conspiracy theory contributed to a debate in Poland in 2020 about "whether the coronavirus pandemic is a punishment for gender theory".[19] An Ipsos survey in October 2019 found that a plurality of Polish men under 40 believe that "the LGBT movement and gender ideology" is the "biggest threat facing them in the 21st century".[20]
The emergence and success of anti-gender movements is considered by political scientist Eszter Kováts to be a symptom of a deeper underlying socioeconomic, political, and cultural crisis of liberal democracy and a reaction to neoliberalism. Similarly, political scientist Birgit Sauer refers to these movements as, among other things, a reaction to deregulation, precarization of labor, the erosion of the welfare state and the widening of the gap between the rich and poor.[21] In the journal LuXemburg in 2018, sociologist Weronika Grzebalska and political scientists Eszter Kováts and Andrea Pető analyze the term gender as the "symbolic glue" of the anti-gender movement, which unites different political and religious actors who would otherwise not cooperate with each other. They view the "gender ideology" that these actors mobilize against as a metaphor for the insecurity and unfairness produced by the neoliberal socioeconomic order.[22]
Those said to support gender ideology are delegitimized, negating pluralism and undermining liberal democracy, in a similar way to the far-right. Lorena Sosa, assistant professor at the (SIM), states that the anti-gender movement has challenged human rights, such as protection from violence against women, and contributed to democratic erosion.
Pető argues that "The anti-gender movement is not merely another offshoot of centuries-old anti-feminism... The anti-gender movement is a fundamentally new phenomenon that was launched to establish a new world order." She also argues that the movement "is saturated with hatred"—citing online harassment against gender researchers—and argues that it "attacks liberalism and therefore democracy".In 2021 the philosopher Judith Butler described the anti-gender movement as a fascist trend and cautioned self-declared feminists against allying with such movements in targeting trans, non-binary, and genderqueer people.[23] [24]
In February 2024, Canada's Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre released an assessment, finding that "the ecosystem of violent rhetoric within the anti-gender movement, compounded with other extreme worldviews, can lead to serious violence." In June 2023, an associate professor and two students were stabbed while attending a gender studies class at the University of Waterloo.[25] In 2023, Elżbieta Korolczuk argued that "while the activities of the anti-gender movement are generally non-violent, its discursive strategies and campaigns should be further analysed as possible conveyor belt to engagement in violent extremism".[26]
Marie Wittenius of the Gunda Werner Institute for feminism and gender democracy argues that the term "gender ideology" "functions as a broad projection area for racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and transphobia, ethnicnationalist ideas as well as hostility towards elites."[27]
In August 2021, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović said the anti-gender movement are "instrumentalising existing societal prejudices and verbally attacking LGBTI people to achieve political objectives for their own benefit" and said the targeting of "LGBTI people for political gain is a costly strategy which harms the lives and well-being of those affected and undermines social cohesion in general." The Commissioner said that "by permeating the political scene, the anti-gender movements are increasingly well-placed to erode the protection of human rights in Europe" and concluded that "by standing up for LGBTI people, we defend the equal human dignity of all, protect our societies' wellbeing and the strength of our precious human rights system."[28]
In February 2022, the European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality organised a public hearing on "Countering the anti-gender movement", highlighting the anti-gender movement as a threat to gender equality.[29]
In March 2024, philosopher Judith Butler published their book titled Who's Afraid of Gender? after being attacked at an airport in Saõ Paulo by "anti-gender" protesters in 2017.[30] Butler uses the phrase "anti-gender ideology movement" to describe the transnational phenomenon of far-right actors turning "gender ideology" into a "psychosocial fantasy" that plays into anxieties and fears surrounding the "traditional family."
The anti-gender movement emerged in Europe in the early 2010s and, as of 2019, was making headway in Latin America. The movement is transnational, with campaigns in different countries borrowing strategies and rhetoric from other countries. However, in individual countries the anti-gender movement overlaps with appeals to nationalism and national sovereignty.
Before the emergence of the anti-gender movement, activists and scholars believed that Europe was on an inexorable course towards complete gender equality and full LGBT rights, serious opposition to which was deemed a holdover from the past or else a phenomenon confined to Eastern Europe and Roman Catholic countries. The anti-gender movement proved this perception to be incorrect. Since the 1990s, the European Commission has made eligibility for funding from the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund conditional on local gender equality policies, which led to rapid changes after Poland joined the European Union in 2004.
In February 2019, the European Parliament passed a resolution against the "backlash in women's rights and gender equality in the EU".[31]
In February 2023, the Bulgarian Socialist Party called for a national referendum on "Gender Ideology". Later in the month, the party praised a Supreme Court ruling that only biological sex can be listed on government documents and could not be changed.[32] [33]
The anti-gender movement in France is spearheaded by Farida Belghoul and La Manif pour tous (LMPT), a protest movement which originated in early 2013 to oppose same-sex marriage in France and pivoted to opposing equality curricula after same-sex marriage was legalized in May 2013. The anti-gender movement in France has spread false rumors and hoaxes, such as the claim that masturbation is being taught in French kindergartens.[34]
In Germany, right-wing extremists and right-wing populists mobilized against the concept of "gender madness", which was characterized as a "weapon" against "the German people" in a 2013 call by neo-Nazis.[35]
Even outside the extreme right, there has been critical discussion of gender mainstreaming since 2006, when Eva Herman commented on the role of women in society and the debated "political gender reassignment". Right-wing extremists used this as a prelude to a targeted campaign against gender mainstreaming.
The far-right German political party, AfD (Alternative für Deutschland), displays its alignment with the anti-gender movement in its "Key Points for Germany" brochure. In the brochure, the AfD positions itself against post-secondary gender studies programs, "gender-mainstreaming", and the discussion of sexuality at early ages in school.[36] The AfD further illustrates its anti-gender position in its 2017 "Manifesto for Germany". There, the AfD states that "gender ideology, early sexualisation, governmental funding of gender studies, quota systems and the deprivation of the German language with gender-conforming words have to be terminated". The AfD has organized anti-gender rallies in cities such as Munich in 2023, emphasizing the perceived threat of "gender propaganda" towards children.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AfD_AntiGender_Poster_Munich.jpg The anti-gender movement has proven key to the rapid rise of the AfD, with the party projecting the protection of the "traditional family" as key to its platform.[37]
Since 2013, the fundamentalist Christian protest alliance has mobilized against same-sex marriage and gender mainstreaming.[38] At a Demo für Alle rally in 2014, journalist Birgit Kelle exclaimed that the German state "grabs for the children to sexualize and reeducate them", playing into the notion of a loss of "parental rights" in educating their own children that the AfD has also used more recently.
According to Eszter Kováts and Andrea Pető, writing in 2017, there was "no significant anti-gender movement" in the country, but "a palpable anti-gender discourse", especially in the later 2010s, which to date had only sporadically intersected with the national public debate. They write that the Hungarian anti-gender discourse emerged in 2008, when a textbook was published that was criticized by a Fidesz MP. The politician said that the textbook contained "gender ideology" and that "the greatest danger of this trend is that society will lose its sexual identity". In politics, the anti-gender discourse first attained prominence in 2010, when the left-wing government inserted a sentence into the national curriculum stating that early childhood educators should "deliberately avoid any strengthening of gender stereotypes and facilitate the dismantling of the prejudices concerning the social equality of genders". Right-wing media gave the change much coverage; it was alleged to promote "gender ideology".
Under Giorgia Meloni, who was elected prime-minister in 2022 Italian general election, the far-right Italian political party, Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy), has placed gender front and centre in its politics. Meloni has frequently emphasized the importance of upholding the gender binary and traditionalist values surrounding family, tieing such issues to the protection of the Italian state and religious apparati. At a 2019 rally, Meloni proclaimed: "I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am Christian."[39] Meloni employs her position as a mother situate herself as the "harbinger of a conservative, yet modern, nation"[40] while playing up the need to shelter the "natural family" from the threat of "gender ideology."
Anti-gender in Italy has been sponsored by Lega Nord party as well as the groups Pro Vita (associated with the neo-fascist party New Force)[41] and Manif pour Tous Italia, later called Generazione Famiglia. In the 2018 Italian general election, Lega Nord placed members of Catholic organizations on its electoral lists, sealing an anti-gender alliance.
The 2020 Lithuanian parliamentary elections and the formation of coalition between the Homeland Union and Freedom Party, which shares a positive stance on LGBT-related policies, led to the formation of anti-gender movements such as the Lithuanian Family Movement[42] and political parties like the National Alliance.[43]
Gender studies scholar Elisabeth L. Engebretsen has identified groups such as the Norwegian branch of Women's Declaration International and LLH2019, a self-declared sister organization of LGB Alliance, as key anti-gender actors in Norway. According to Engebretsen these groups are part of a "complex threat to democracy".[44]
Gender studies scholar Janne Bromseth wrote that the 2022 Oslo shooting "happened in a context" and that "the anti-gender movement has also shifted boundaries in the public debate in Norway in recent years," resulting in "a harsher climate of debate where primarily organized TERFs have been given space to set the agenda for the 'debate on gender' and the alleged threat of 'gender ideology' to the natural order."[45]
In late 2013, the term gender, which had been confined to academic discourse, became popularized as part of an anti-gender campaign by the right-wing and the Catholic Church. The campaign against "gender ideology" was promoted by the national-conservative Law and Justice party which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023, by the Catholic Church's hierarchy, and more radically nationalist groups with which Law and Justice had a fluid boundary: All-Polish Youth, the National Rebirth of Poland, and the National-Radical Camp. In 2019, sociologists and Paweł Żuk wrote that: "The right in Poland perceives both feminist and homosexual circles as a threat to the national identity associated with the Catholic religion and as a threat to the traditional family model and social order." Anti-LGBT rhetoric from the Polish right increased following the conclusion of the 2015 European migrant crisis, during which anti-migrant rhetoric was prominent.[46] With anti-gender rhetoric, the LGBT community served as the scapegoat or demonized enemy required by populist politics.
A 2020 survey of a representative sample of 1,000 Poles found that 30% believed in the existence of a gender conspiracy, "defined as a secret plan to destroy Christian tradition partly by taking control over public media". The survey found that belief in the gender conspiracy did not correlate with religiosity; it was strongly associated with the belief that the Catholic Church should occupy a privileged position in society and rejection of LGBT people as neighbors. Marta Rawłuszko suggests that Polish people may be prone to finding conspiracies because of the actual plots during communist rule. In June 2020, Polish president Andrzej Duda of Law and Justice drew attention when he called LGBT an "ideology" and a form of "neo-Bolshevism", ahead of the 2020 Polish presidential election.[47] [48]
Russia
Vladimir Putin views gender as an "ideological construction" created by the Western Europe, playing into the complex meanings of the Russian derogatory term, Gayropa. The term invokes the idea that Western European civilization is facing decadence and decay, symbolized in the dissolution of traditional gender binaries triumphed by contemporary LGBTQ+ movements and queer mainstreaming.
In 2023, the "1 Million March 4 Children" was a series of anti-LGTBQ protests carried out in various cities throughout Canada.[49] [50] [51] [52] Protesters advocated removing "pronouns, gender ideology and mixed bathrooms" in the educational environment.[53] Protesters claimed children were exposed to "inappropriate" topics regarding sexuality and gender identity.[54] At least 63 counter-protests were planned or carried out in response to the march.[53] [55] On 19 September 2023, an educational union in Ontario had three offices vandalized with anti-LGBTQ messages.[56] In response to the march, various school boards in Ontario expressed their support for LGBTQ schoolchildren, staff, and families. In Ottawa, two protesters were arrested for "inciting hatred" by "displaying hateful material".[57] Another person was arrested for disturbance.[58] The protests were condemned by Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe,[59] as well as cities such as Whitehorse.[60]
See main article: 2020s anti-LGBT movement in the United States.
In 2021, there was a march in Puerto Rico against the introduction of a "Gender Perspective curriculum" in public schools that was created under former Governor Alejandro García Padilla and being enacted under Governor Pedro Pierluisi. Marchers said they opposed "Gender Ideology". Speakers included Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres, political scientist Agustín Laje, and other religious leaders.[61]
Former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro has characterized "gender ideologists" as a force that is opposed to conservative Christianity. He has also said that he wants to ban "gender ideology in schools".[62]
During the 2016 Colombian peace agreement referendum, evangelical Christian groups and right-wing politicians who opposed the peace agreement argued that protections for LGBT people in the treaty were "an instrument to impose gender ideology". This helped motivate much of the evangelical electorate to oppose the agreement, which was ultimately rejected by voters,[63] 50.22% (No) to 49.78% (Yes).
In 2023, the Iraqi government issued an order officially prohibiting media from using the word "gender". It also mandated that the word "homosexuality" be avoided, in favor of "sexual deviance".[64]
The conservative government of Turkey has recently ramped up anti-LGBT rhetoric. The opposition to gender and sexuality related progressive movements comes from political Islam, Islamism, and family values rhetoric. The government has supported anti-LGBT marches with the name of "The Great Family Meeting" by airing public statements on national TV.[65] The state also suppresses Pride Marches.[66]
One of the primary sources of anti-gender action is religious congregations in Turkey. All major parties of the governing Cumhur İttifakı, and some prominent people from opposition parties also engage in anti-gender rhetoric.[67]
