An indestructible coalition? Spanning boundaries and sidelining differences in the Italian anti-gender galaxy

Scholars have extensively examined the rise of anti-gender politics in Europe and its effects on democratic backsliding, with Italy being a key battleground in the ‘anti-gender crusade’ against reproductive and LGBTQIA+ rights. The Italian anti-gender galaxy involves various sectors of actors, including ecclesial organizations, anti-gender groups, and right-wing populist actors. Furthermore, anti-gender organizations and right-wing populist parties have increasingly collaborated, leading to anti-gender actors entering the Parliament and Government and successfully opposing progressive legislation. The institutionalization of anti-gender politics has also been achieved through the use of social media to build their moral legitimacy. Additionally, recent studies highlight growing concerns about the rights of trans* individuals and suggest the formation of an ‘anti-trans coalition’ between anti-gender organizations, right-wing populist parties, and anti-trans groups, including ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminists’ and anti-trans parent activists. While much attention has been paid to the ‘offline’ dimensions of anti-gender politics, the everyday labor behind the circulation and normalization of anti-gender rhetoric is often overlooked. Furthermore, while the anti-gender galaxy is recognized for its internal diversity, scholarly focus tends to emphasize overlapping claims rather than differences between its sectors. This focus tends to obscure the processes through which political field boundaries are spanned and crossed by the different parts of the anti-gender galaxy, negotiating and sidelining differences that characterize them. This paper addresses this gap by analyzing social media public discourse as a political terrain and examining recent lines of coalitional convergence and fracturing around anti-gender claims. To do so, we consider two interrelated aspects. First, we look at the topics that these actors discuss in their social media posts in search of thematic commonalities but also for specific thematic concerns. Second, we explore how the four sectors frame these topics, and the extent to which frames are shared or remain sector-specific. Empirically, we analyze the Facebook and Instagram content of 22 prominent Italian anti-gender actors from 2021 to 2023. Our mixed-method approach combines topic modeling to unveil the thematic concerns addressed by these actors, with semantic network analysis and qualitative frame analysis to explore the discourses beneath these thematic concerns. Our findings show that the considered actors converge on surrogacy, gender ideology, and trans* rights. However, this expansion appears driven not by shared goals, but by a common fear of losing identities and privileges, which allows them to sideline their differences. Nonetheless, our results also suggest potential rifts, especially regarding abortion, where anti-trans feminist groups diverge from the other sectors. These differences may challenge the stability of the current coalition, making the political work of maintaining unity more complex. This study contributes to deepening our understanding of the latest convergences between anti-gender and anti-trans actors. By doing so, it sheds further light on the processes of boundary-spanning and differences sidelining that subtend to the persistence and progressive enlargement of the anti-gender field in the country, as well as the possible lines of fractures that may trouble what currently seems to be an indestructible coalition threatening democracy.