RESIST project presents initial results
"Anti-gender" politics in parliaments, media and public controversies in a Europe-wide context
Where and how "anti-gender" politics manifests itself in different countries is the topic of the Europe-wide research project RESIST - "Fostering Queer Feminist Intersectional Resistances against Transnational Anti-Gender Politics", in which the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION is involved. Launched in October 2022, the four-year project has now published its first findings, which show how transgender rights and LGBTIQ advocacy have become the target of "anti-gender" politics internationally.
The study is the first cross-national investigation to look at anti-gender politics in parliaments, media and public controversies in a Europe-wide context. In a first sub-project, 200 parliamentary debates at national level and over 2,000 newspaper articles from 87 media outlets in Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Parliament were analysed in the period from 2015 to 2023. The research findings show several patterns of how the rights of women and LGBTIQ+ people were challenged during this period. In all countries analysed, it was found that the rights of trans people and the recognition of LGBTIQ+ rights in particular were challenged through regular political advances or parliamentary debates.
Media scholar Prof Gavan Titley, head of the project at the University of Maynooth in Ireland, explains: "Our research shows that an intense attack on LGTBIQ+ people across Europe is driven by an attack on the idea of 'gender' itself. The so-called 'anti-gender' policies that have been used to attack feminism and reproductive rights for decades are not static," emphasises the project manager. For example, any form of LGBTIQ+ visibility and advocacy is marginalised as "aggressive activism" and it is claimed that the ideas and values of a "minority" are being imposed on the "majority population".
The initial findings should enable further studies to explore how "anti-gender" policies affect everyday experiences, freedom of expression, academic freedom, reproductive rights and gender diversity.
At the European University Viadrina, sociologist Dr Latife Akyüz is working on the transnational perspective of people who have had to leave their country due to anti-gender policies as part of the project.
Background RESIST
The research project is funded by the EU Horizon Europe programme. In addition to the European University Viadrina, the following institutions are involved: Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, University College Dublin, Edinburgh Napier University, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Université de Lausanne, Université de Fribourg, Maynooth University, Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the Feminist Autonomous Centre for Research in Athens.