Anti-Gender Disinformation and Epistemic Struggles in Debates on LGBTQ+ Conversion Practices

Conversion practices, often referred to as “conversion therapy,” encompass a range of formal and informal methods aimed at changing or suppressing an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression (SOGIE). Although these practices have been widely discredited by medical professionals and human rights organizations, their defense has become a central talking point for transnational anti-gender movements that are gaining increasing influence across Europe and beyond. In response, there have been growing efforts to implement legal bans on such practices—for example, through the European Union’s LGBTIQ+ Strategy 2026–2030—and international LGBTQ+ rights organizations, including ILGA, actively monitor both the practices and the legal measures taken against them. This paper explores key features of the epistemic double bind that emerges in the contestation of conversion practices, focusing on struggles over scientific authority, rights and freedoms, and the definition of legitimate evidence. To illustrate these dynamics, I analyze discourses and narratives surrounding Norway’s 2023 Conversion Therapy Ban, highlighting the transnational connections and collaborations that underpin local campaigns. The paper argues that such campaigns not only threaten LGBTQ+ rights and well-being but also undermine democratic values and academic freedom by eroding trust in scientific expertise and reframing fundamental human rights protections as ideological extremism. By examining the Norwegian case—a context that has thus far received limited attention in international research on anti-gender mobilizations—this paper contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the violent potentials of anti-gender politics and underscores the urgent need to expose and confront their epistemic strategies.