- Celestine S. Kunkeler, C-REX, University of Oslo: Violence and extremism in anti-trans politics; or, what does trans panic do for the Right?
- Iris B. Segers, C-REX, University of Oslo & Katherine Kondor, Norwegian Centre for Holocaust and Minority Studies: Radical anti-gender politics: The cases of the far right in the Netherlands and Hungary
- Audrey Gagnon, CRIDAQ, University of Ottawa: Conspiracy theories and anti-gender movements
- My Rafstedt, University of Oslo, Sabine Volk, University of Passau & Iris B. Segers, C-REX, University of Oslo: OK to be gay? Far-right constructions of the nativist homosexual subject
Panel abstract:
This panel concerns anti-gender movements, meaning reactionary and extremist movements mobilising around a demonised and overdetermined conception of ‘gender’. The four papers in this panel address the violent extremism of transphobic anti-gender politics in the UK and the US; anti-gender movements in Hungary and the Netherlands, and their transnational and organisational linkages; conspiracist narratives in anti-gender movements in Québec; and the mobilisation of cisgender homosexuals against gender diverse queer others in Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
Violence and extremism in anti-trans politics; or, what does trans panic do for the Right?
Celestine S. Kunkeler, C-REX, University of Oslo
Anti-trans discourse and mobilisation has grown dramatically in the past decade, especially on the Right. While transgender and other gender diverse people remain a small minority in any country, there has been a disproportionate year-on-year increase in political attacks on this community, with the United Kingdom and the United States acting as trailblazers. This paper explores the violent and extremist nature of anti-trans politics, paying particular attention to discourse, legislation, and ideology. While anti-trans politics is often framed as a recent backlash against supposed gains by the LGBT movement, this has limited explanatory value for the intensity and function of political transphobia. Instead, this paper examines the historical roots of modern transphobic politics, its immediate antecedents in the postwar period, and its present-day incorporation into a right-wing and ‘anti-gender’ agenda. This shows that while transphobic positions are taken up by a broad range of mainstream actors – right, centre, and left – the reactionary historical roots of trans panic serve to normalise a violent and authoritarian agenda, by mainstreaming eliminationist discourse, expelling others from public life, and the extension of state control over private life.
Radical anti-gender politics: The cases of the far right in the Netherlands and Hungary
Iris B. Segers, C-REX, University of Oslo & Katherine Kondor, Norwegian Centre for Holocaust and Minority Studies
Radical anti-gender views are increasingly prevalent in the political arena, in part due to increasing mobilization on gender-related issues by far-right parties and movements. Although the literature often tends to describe the far-right in Eastern and Central Europe as more ‘traditional’ in terms of gender politics and North-Western European far-right parties as “sexually modern nativists” (Lancaster 2020), transnational connections between extreme right parties and movements are blurring such distinctions. Therefore, we explore the ideological and transnational linkages between two extreme-right parties in The Netherlands and Hungary: Forum for Democracy (Forum voor Democratie, FvD) and the Our Homeland Movement (Mi Hazánk Mozgalom, MHM), both of which are small parties which operate on the fringes of the institutional political sphere. Using a comparative thematic analysis of the parties’ Telegram channels, we first examine how anti-gender mobilization themes are presented by the parties, as well as the ways in which they relate to their respective mainstream. Second, we explore the discursive and organizational transnational linkages between FvD and MHM. This study sheds light on the ways in which seemingly national anti-gender campaigns are fuelled by inherently transnational themes and narratives, in part due to the underexplored transnational ties between extreme right actors.
Conspiracy theories and anti-gender movements
Audrey Gagnon, CRIDAQ, University of Ottawa
Anti-gender mobilizations are often conceived as part of a transnational movement, which has proved capable of reaching new audiences, creating coalitions of diverse reactionary actors including religious conservatives, far-right individuals, and ‘gender-critical’ feminists. In multiple liberal democracies, these actors have been protesting to oppose the ‘gender ideology’, sex and gender education at schools, gender-affirming care, as well as drag queen story hour. To better understand these mobilizations, it is imperative to investigate the narratives that fuel them. Specifically, this research investigates the way conspiracy theories incite mobilization in anti-gender movements in Québec, Canada. Drawing on an analysis of anti-gender discourses promoted by far-right online influencers and five interviews conducted with anti-gender activists who consume the content of these influencers, this research highlights the crucial role of gender conspiracy theories, as well as that of online influencers who propagate these theories, in inciting collective action. Gender conspiracy theories involve provocative narratives that present gender as morally and socially harmful, oppose scientific facts, and trigger strong emotions that incite action
OK to be gay? Far-right constructions of the nativist homosexual subject
My Rafstedt, University of Oslo, Sabine Volk, University of Passau & Iris B. Segers, C-REX, University of Oslo
Far-right positions on gender are generally understood as heteronormative and familialist (Kemper, 2016). Yet, some nativist parties, especially in North-Western Europe, embrace ‘homonationalist’ (Puar, 2007) and ‘femonationalist’ (Farris, 2017) stances as part of an anti-Islam ideology, thus fashioning themselves as the champions of women’s and gay rights. Such manifestations of ‘liberal illiberalism’ (Moffit, 2017) notwithstanding, far-right actors also increasingly mobilize on the issue of gender (Graff & Korolczuk, 2022), for example in the form of far-right protest against queer life and public performances such as transgender rights, pride month, drag story hours, etc.
This paper explores these apparent contradictions through a comparative analysis of the institutional far right in Germany (Alternative für Deutschland), Sweden (Sverigedemokraterna) and the Netherlands (Partij voor de Vrijheid), countries that have seen an increasing political commitment to the protection of the rights of non-binary and transgender people. Based on a qualitative critical discourse analysis of party literature such as manifestoes, social media data, and media texts, we show that far-right parties in these three country contexts strategically combine support for cis-gender and monogamous homosexuality with the rejection of, or attacks on, forms of queerness that do not fit their cis-nativist agenda: in construing an ‘ideal’ nativist homosexual subject, they (re)create new lines of in- and exclusion within their exclusionary conceptions of the native group. Emphasizing the role of far-right parties as entrepreneurs of meaning-making, our paper contributes to the literature on far-right ideology and discursive strategy more broadly.