The Tactics of the International Organization for the Family - Transnationalizing the agenda of heterosexual family rights

In recent years, anti-gender movements gained popularity worldwide, feeding from the rise of the far right and connecting with a diverse range of conservative groups leading to new transnational alliances among various religious and political organizations. While there have been several anthologies dedicated to the analysis of anti-gender movements in Europe, the research on transnational organizations is still in an early phase. Therefore the chapter turns to the analysis of the International Organization for the Family (IOF), a global alliance of the American Christian Right, the Russian Orthodox Church and far right groups, to study how they engage in transnational collective action by asking: Which tactics does the IOF employ to promote transnational rights for heterosexual families? To answer this question, I analyze a number of IOF major events from 2014 to 2020 across Moldova, Russia, Italy and Germany to engage with tactics and strategic actions, that the organization employs to support rights of heterosexual families. Through an actor-centered approach to social movement tactics and strategic action, the dissection of IOF related speeches, policies, interviews, websites and protests contributes to reflect upon their long-term thinking connecting action with overall goals and the particular means chosen to advance them. Furthermore the analysis of these events provides a number of insights into the intra-organizational interaction and public presentation highlighting common patterns of action repertoires. The study of IOF tactics and strategic action suggests, that the organization plays an important role in transferinger knowledge concerning policy implimentation, public support and destribution of resources among supporters of heterosexual family rights in Hungary, Moldova, Russia and Germany. Recognizing the importance of these transnational networks, the study of the IOF tactics and strategic action enriches the understanding of transnational social movements and contributes to the study of repertoires of contention differentiating between national, intergovernmental and transnational levels of interaction.