The RESIST project has released research reports demonstrating how the lives of transgender people and LGBTIQ activism have become key targets for “anti-gender” politics internationally.

RESIST (Fostering Queer Feminist Intersectional Resistances against Transnational Anti-Gender Politics) is a four-year study and is backed by over €4 million of funding, including support from the European Union, and UK and Swiss governments.

Maria Rodó: “Although Spain is not a case study for this analysis, it’s interesting to see how the trends and themes that have surfaced also materialise in our context in similar ways"

Maria Rodó, principal researcher of RESIST at the Pompeu Fabra University, coordinator of the Research Group on Gender and Inequalities (GRETA) of the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University, highlights: “Although Spain is not a case study for this analysis, it’s interesting to see how the trends and themes that have surfaced also materialise in our context in similar ways”.

Gavan Titley, principal investigator at Maynooth University, said: “Our research demonstrates that an intensified attack on LGTBIQ+ identities across Europe is advanced through attacking the very idea of ‘gender’. While so-called ‘anti-gender’ politics have been taking shape for over a decade now, it is important to recognise that they are not static. 

Professor Titley adds: “A notable shift right now is to try to marginalise any form of LGBTIQ+ visibility as ‘aggressive activism’ that wants to impose minority ideas and values on majority populations. Once you do this, you can declare that you are defending children’s rights, parent’s rights, freedom of speech and even democracy against them”. 

Analysis of parliamentary debates and newspaper articles

Based on research into thousands of parliamentary debates and newspaper articles in Hungary, Poland, Switzerland and the UK, the research results provide evidence of several alarming trends in how LGBTIQ+ rights are currently being undermined. 

Gavan Titley: "In every context studied, a major national newspaper has taken a lead role in stoking up an anti-trans moral panic”

Prof. Gavan Titley explains: “While there are important differences across countries, in every country studied we found evidence of sensationalist and demeaning political attention directed at transgender people. These so-called debates are all very recent and driven by clearly identifiable political interests. It is notable that in every context studied, a major national newspaper has taken a lead role in stoking up an anti-trans moral panic”. 

The media and parliamentary analysis was led by the Department of Media Studies of the Maynooth University.

The project is co-ordinated by University College Dublin in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University, European University Viadrina, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Université de Lausanne, Université de Fribourg, Maynooth University, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and Feminist Autonomous Centre for Research, Athens.