Transnational perspectives on anti-LGBTIQ++ politics and LGBTIQ++ resistances

Abstract

As an increasing body of research shows, anti-LGBTIQ++ politics have become a core strategic terrain for contemporary anti-gender movements, which mobilise against feminist, queer and trans rights by constructing sexual and gender diversity as a threat to social order, national identity and “traditional” values. Across regions, these movements draw on shared discursive repertoires—such as the claim of a defence of children, the rejection of so-called “gender ideology,” and appeals to a purported binary gender biological essentialism—to legitimise policies that curtail bodily autonomy, restrict public visibility and undermine democratic pluralism. Their relevance lies not only in targeting LGBTIQ++ communities directly, but in functioning as “discursive bridges” from conservative to extreme right camps, through which broader anti-democratic and exclusionary projects are advanced. This dynamic is not confined to Europe and the United States: in contexts of de-democratisation and democratic backsliding such as Egypt, Turkey and Tunisia, anti-LGBTIQ++ policies have likewise served as tools for consolidating state control, disciplining civil society and mobilising conservative moral orders. For example, recent policy initiatives range from “propaganda” bans and restrictions on queer education or assembly in parts of Europe to proliferating U.S. state-level bills limiting gender-affirming healthcare, sports participation and curricular content, while cases from the SWANA region reveal how intensified policing, moral-panic rhetoric and the instrumentalisation of public morality laws similarly entrench authoritarian governance. These diverse cases demonstrate how anti-LGBTIQ++ politics operate as an entry point for wider struggles over citizenship, rights and belonging—making a comparative, cross-regional perspective essential for understanding both the global coherence of anti-gender mobilisations and the varied forms of LGBTIQ++ resistance they provoke. While the centrality of anti-LGBTIQ++ politics to anti-gender mobilizations is undenieable, research has large and by remained at the margins of discussions on anti-gender politics. Therefore, this panel aims at centering anti-LGBTIQ++ politics within the academic discourse on anti-gender, fostering discussions on the dynamics, strategies, functions and effects of anti-LGBTIQ++ mobilization and policies. This panel brings together cross-regional research on anti-LGBTIQ++ politics and LGBTIQ++ movements’ responses, allowing for a comparative discussion of the phaenomena at hand. Beside thorough analyses of anti-LGBTIQ++ politics and how they affect the targeted communities and individuals, the panel seeks to throw light on strategies and practices of LGBTIQ++ movements, their organizations, groups, individual activists and broader activist networks as they maneuver through and respond to such attacks. Drawing on the corpus of literature on anti-gender and anti-LGBTIQ++politics, the panel comprises a broad variety of theoretical approaches, including Social Movement Studies, LGBTIQ++, Trans - and Queerstudies, Post- and Decolonial Studies, as well as Global and Area Studies, allowing for a fruitful, theoretically grounded discussion.

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Radicalizing Homonormativity, promoting Authoritarian Metapolitics: How LGBT(IQ+)-led Anti-Gender Campaigns modernize and normalize Anti-Democratic Sexual Politics	View Paper Details
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