Transnational networks of anti-gender activism: Same, same or widely different?

Abstract: Women’s and LGBTQ+ rights have become a site of heated rivalry among transnational advocacy networks. Today, networks of anti-gender actors openly target same-sex marriage, abortion legislation, and reproductive rights, both at the domestic and the international level. To what extent do these transnational advocacy networks (TANs) differ from their progressive rivals? Existing research has focused chiefly on progressive TANs in the fields of human rights, environment, or human security. An important finding is that major Global-North-based NGOs hold powerful positions in such networks – deciding the issue agenda and making campaigning decisions while channelling information, services, and resources. This paper uses existing information on anti-gender actors and their ties in the European context for a network analysis. It establishes (1) what kind of actors we are observing, and (2) what shape their networks are taking, exploring similarities and differences of progressive and ultra-conservative networks.