In April 2025, Prof. Kath Browne was part of a plenary session to discuss the findings of RESIST, on a panel with EL*C Advocacy Director Ilaria Todde, and Italian trans activist Eva Sassi Croce, under 4 key questions:
What is ‘anti-gender’?
How is it working in Europe?
What are the impacts of ‘anti-gender’ mobilisations?
What are the resistances?
If you are interested in the answer to these questions, read on to find out more…
This blog, co-written by Kath Browne and Órlaith Hennessy, summarises some of the main RESIST findings from the reports produced by the Consortium. This talk was originally heard by an audience of over 700 activists, policy makers and EU and national politicians at the 2025 EL*C conference in Rome.
What is ‘anti-gender’?
‘Anti-gender’ is a broad term, and it is not always seen as useful: it can be considered too academic, and doesn’t translate across all contexts. Among those who do use this term, it is used varyingly and inconsistently.
However, some find it helpful for naming the ways that gender equality, reproductive justice, abortion rights, and LGBTQIA+ liberations are contested, legally and socially. Drawing on the RESIST project’s terminology, here we use the term ‘anti-gender’ to name intentional, organised, targeted movements and state actions that are anti-LGBTQIA+, anti-feminist, ‘anti-gender’ and sexual equalities, and anti-intersectionality. This includes state repressions, abortions bans, anti-LGBT laws, and gender critical activists working towards court verdicts that define ‘biological sex’.
How is it working in Europe?
‘Anti-gender’ in Europe is organised, but not coherent, working in different ways in different places–and this is a strength: there is power in its incoherence. Their key undertaking is to establish LGBTQIA+ people, feminists and others as a problem, and create a controversy around us, our lives and our rights. This is often based on ‘common sense’ and mobilises existing prejudice.
The RESIST research data was collected prior to the European elections in 2024; since then the situation has grown more concerning, and so the research lead by Prof. Gavan Titley is even more prescient now. Examples of how ‘anti-gender’ tactics manifest include:
- In parliamentary and media discourse, support for reproductive rights, feminism and LGBTIQ+ rights is framed as ‘gender ideology’. This is used in many ways, for example against abortion rights in Poland, lesbian parental rights in Italy, and trans rights in the UK. When framed as an ideology, we are no longer people; we are dangerous to societies and, indeed, democracy.
- LGBTQIA+ people, feminists and others are contrived as a controversy with claims of abuse, corruption, damage and danger. For example, Pride seeks to corrupt, trans-ness is a licence for child abuse, any sexual health education is indoctrination.
- The positioning of ‘democracy’ by those who oppose us is also essential to how ‘anti-gender’ works in Europe. ‘Anti-gender’ groups are networked and are active in civil society, lobbying and elsewhere. However, when this is done by LGBTIQ and feminists, it is depicted as an attack on democracy itself. It is ‘common sense’ to consider ‘gender ideology’ a threat and to consider the assault on trans rights, feminism, queer life a liberalism: they are protecting sovereignty, free speech, and of course, democracy.
Want to know more? Our ‘Anti-gender’ Tactics Summary Tool summarises key findings from 5 case studies
What is the impact of ‘anti-gender’ mobilisations?
Within the RESIST data drawn from 254 people from across Europe, there are, naturally, differences between contexts in how ‘anti-gender’ is experienced; however, anti-LGBTQIA+ and anti-feminist organised and targeted movements, state actions and activisms are everywhere. Some of the key implications identified transnationally include:
- ‘Anti-gender’ mobilisations lead to physical, verbal and online attacks and systemic discrimination against women, feminists, and/or LGBTIQ+ people. These are frequent and occur in all case study contexts: in both eastern and western Europe, in places like Ireland and Germany, which are supposedly ‘liberal’, as well as places like Belarus and Poland.
- Attacks and discrimination have tangible, cumulative effects on those who are targeted, including a pervasive sense of fear and vulnerability, mental and emotional strain, self-censorship and withdrawal from public life, career and financial instability, and migration.
- The effects are intersectional with specific attacks on racialised and working class people and communities, and a relentlessness for those who belong to more than one marginalised identity. These mobilisations are present in queer and LGBTQIA+ communities as well; ‘anti-gender’ attacks are not exclusively outside of these spaces.
‘Anti-gender’ discourses and politics therefore cause concrete harm, affecting daily life and creating environments that are arduous and, at times, unbearable. These include severe violations, sometimes amounting to crimes, undermining European democratic values.
Want to know more? Read our Transnational Report
What are the forms of resistances?
RESIST found that though resistance is broad and wide ranging, it is easily underestimated. The attacks can feel relentless, and this can lead to hopelessness. Some examples of resistances that the RESIST research identifies include:
- Being visible, be it on a public platform or in everyday spaces, is an important defiance of ‘anti-gender’ movements. By surviving we are resisting the forces that want an end to gender and sexual equalities, trans lives, etc.
- Collectives are also mobilising through solidarity and community building, advocacy, legal action, research, education and knowledge sharing. Individuals form ‘bubbles’ with each other: safe spaces where they can exist, at least temporarily, away from ‘anti-gender’.
- Ensuring safety and protection is a key strategy among communities facing threats; this can involve limiting event publicity, engaging with local police, and focusing on self-defence, as well as avoiding particular spaces where it is feared attacks would take place. Digital safety is also vital, consisting of blocking and muting certain accounts, using strict privacy settings, and careful storage of information.
- Dialogue–or, ‘having the chats’–with those who might be hearing disinformation or mis-information, enabling open conversations, allowing for mistakes, and developing understanding, serves as an effective form of resistance.
- Depending on the individual or group, avoidance of or engagement with social media both act as resistances. Online platforms can amplify LGBTQIA+ and feminist movements and information, and some LGBTQIA+ allies respond to online attacks to divert attention from the primary targets of these attacks. However, many seek protection and peace by refraining from using social media.
- Migration, or plans to migrate, as well as an effect of ‘anti-gender’ targeting, is an ‘anti-gender’ resistance, in that it enables escape from hostile environments, and can open up new possibilities, for example, in terms of expressing sexual and gender identities.
- Queer joy! Creating spaces for collective joy is an important aspect of this resistance, and can mitigate the weight of organisational work, attack and fear of attack.
Want to know more? Read our Transnational Report, and see suggestions for starting points for solidarities that emerged from 30 expert interviews in RESIST’s Eleven Insights handout.
Overall, facing ‘anti-gender’ can feel relentless, so as researchers heard throughout the RESIST research, LGBTQIA+ people, feminists and allies need each other, and to centralise those who are marginalised, including from within these communities. Celebration is also key; what we, the authors of this blog, are referring to as ‘queer joy’ is central to surviving, resisting and supporting each other.
Kath Browne and Órlaith Hennessy