Academic discussion of anti-gender politics took shape in the early 2010s, when researchers noticed the rise of transnational networks mobilising against gender equality and sexual rights.

Paternotte and Kuhar’s Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe (2017) demonstrated that these movements are not isolated national reactions but cross-border coalitions. Messages, strategies, and funding circulate across churches, NGOs, political parties, think-tanks, and digital platforms. Graff and Korolczuk (2022) argue that anti-gender politics defend patriarchal, heteronormative, nationalist, and racialised hierarchies by depicting equality itself as a threat. Their work shows that anti-gender politics mobilise moral panic to produce a sense of cultural siege.

RESIST Quote

'The idea of gender, feminism and LGBTIQ+ is presented as a threat to the privileged position of the heteronormative nuclear family, sex-based roles and identities, and, in multiple ways, the given order of the nation. For ‘anti-gender’ actors across contexts and arenas, ‘gender’ is framed as an ideology foisted onto unwilling populations, and this framing of gender diversity and non-heterosexuality as an imposition is critical to legitimating the force and hostility of ‘anti-gender’ politics.’ – RESIST Mapping Report, Transnational findings p. 3

Recent intersectional analyses, including the RESIST Project Reports (2024), demonstrate that anti-gender movements are deeply entangled with racism, nationalism, xenophobia, and class inequality. The hostility toward gender and sexuality disproportionately targets those already marginalised: racialised communities, migrants, trans people, and people with disabilities. In this sense, anti-gender politics acts as a gateway for broader authoritarian and exclusionary projects.