Activist resistances to anti-gender and anti-LGBTQIA+ politics as laboratories for liberation in intense times (I)

Abstract

Across the globe, current geopolitical configurations are marked by intersecting inequalities, multiple crises and exponential far-right success in both electoral and contentious arenas. Within this framework, since the early 2010s, European countries have faced the rise of anti-gender politics at the national and international level targeting reproductive and LGBTQIA+ rights (Paternotte & Kuhar, 2017), as well as intersecting with racist, xenophobic, and hateful political agendas (Indelicato & Magalhães Lopes, 2024). Far from occurring despite and at the expense of liberal democracy, the transnational diffusion of the anti-gender project has been enabled by the exclusionary legacies of capitalism, colonialism and fascism on which current European democracies are built (Roggeband et al., 2025). In what have been defined as ‘intense times’ (della Porta, 2025), feminist and LGBTQIA+ activists have been on the front lines resisting anti-gender politics and its exclusionary entanglements (Smrdelj & Kuhar 2025). In their organising, mobilising, and alliance-building, feminist and LGBTQIA+ activists have been experimenting with freedom to imagine alternative societies. From mutual aid to community-building, feminist and and LGBTQIA+ are not only resisting fighting back against the curtailment of their rights and freedoms, but are also engaged in creating ‘more possible meetings’ (Lorde, 1984). This panel explores the activists’ resistances to anti-gender and anti-LGBTQIA+ politics as laboratories for liberation in intense times. We ask: How do feminist and LGBTQIA+ activists resist and respond to anti-gender and anti-LGBTQIA+ across Europe, as well as its exclusionary entanglement with xenonphobic, ableist and white suprematist agendas? How are they, in addition to resisting, interpreting, envisioning and practicing liberation? How have these intense times produced new forms of activist theory and practice? In conclusion, what is the space for liberation in feminist and LGBTQIA+ activism across Europe? We welcome papers that engage these questions from diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives. Comparative studies are particularly encouraged, as are contributions that foreground transnational connections and intersectional resistance strategies. Furthermore, we take a deliberately expansive view of both ‘feminism’ and ‘activism’ to be inclusive of activists who may not necessarily identify as ‘feminist’ but are nevertheless engaged in collective action to combat intersectional oppression and build social change. By focusing on resistances as laboratories for liberation in intense times, this panel aims to advance theoretical and empirical debates on feminist and LGBTQIA+ activism’s potential to transform current societies and reimagine democracies.

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