Lesson 1.2: How Activists Understand 'Anti-Gender' Politics?

1. Intro

Building on the previous discussion, this topic foregrounds how activists and affected communities across Europe experience, interpret, and make sense of anti-gender dynamics in their own political and social contexts.

Across Europe, activists express similar reservations and frequently avoid the term ‘anti-gender’ altogether. Many prefer locally grounded vocabularies – backlash, repression, fundamentalism, state violence, racism, or moral panic – which they feel better reflect their lived experience. The RESIST Project confirms a clear pattern: the further one moves from policy institutions and towards grassroots organising, the more contested and uneven the term becomes.