Article by Leah Lipsey Swarbrick

Photo by Neto Torres on Unsplash

We live in a rampant forest fire of gender warfare, where the far right seek to burn down the gains of women and the LGBT communities in pursuit of traditional Christian beliefs. The gender culture war is at the forefront of political debate, as we come to question why in the 21st century, so many are looking to renew the social norms of the past.

Gender is complex, varying in definition from one person to another. However, I am lucky, safe from the tumult of this debate, as I feel truly represented by the word ‘female’; I fit in the binary, that Western Christian religion has established as the ‘norm’.

Gender politics, bring into question what is ‘normal’, creating a culture war. The far right and their anti-gender-based rhetoric, mirror the ideology of the Christian Church, arguing for biological essentialism, where gender and sex are rooted in nature and follow a strict binary of ‘male’ and ‘female’. The Church has established the idea of ‘natural law’[1] where biology and thus social hierarchy is ‘God-given’. However, the liberal faction of this ‘gender war’ oppose sexual dimorphism and argue that sex and gender are socially constructed and based on how a person defines their own body.

To understand how the anti-gender movement has established itself in mainstream politics, we must investigate the relationship between the far right and the Christian Church.  In ‘Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Movement’ Graff and Korolczuk argue that towards the end of the 20th century, the Church felt threatened by the idea of the ‘post-binary gender’ and feminist progress. This led to neo-conservative actors speaking out, such as Dale O’Leary (a US-based Catholic journalist)[2]. O’Leary published ‘The Gender Agenda’ in 1997, highlighting a new issue: ‘gender ideology’, and arguing that feminist and LGBTQ movements were anti-family. The Vatican embraced the new anti-gender movement, openly speaking against the liberal attack on the traditional family (nuclear/heterosexual family) and publishing works, like the ‘2003 Lexicon: Ambiguous and Debatable Terms Regarding Family Life and Ethical Question’.[3]

These ideas draw many parallels with the far rights desire to protect families and traditional values. Graff and Korolczuk discuss how many of the Church’s principles have now been adopted across right-wing sects and used to establish global institutions. For example, the ultra-conservative network ‘Tradition, Family and Property’ established in 1960 in Brazil, is behind anti-gender projects set up in Poland, such as ‘The Ordo Iuris’ and in Croatia, such as ‘Vigilare Foundation’ [4].

The US is also an example of right-wing politics and religion working together, as ‘white Evangelicals have become the bedrock of the Republican Party’⁵. From Reagan’s campaign in 1979 to Trump’s campaigns in 2016/20/24, Republicans have received essential support from wealthy evangelicals. Jerry Falwell, who established the Moral Majority in 1979, a political organisation ‘associated with the Christian right and Republican Party’⁶, was one of the first invited to Reagan’s White house. He promoted the idea of strong nuclear ‘families, guided by (their) faith in God’⁷. He argued against this new age of gender-based politics, as feminist movements were making headway with the ruling of Roe v. Wade in 1972.

Now, over forty years later the reign of Trump and the evangelical agenda, have further suppressed the gender movement. Trump’s selection of Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court Justice resulted in the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Trump also spoke directly to both the right- and left-wing faction of this culture war in his 2025 inauguration speech, clearly dismissing the existence of trans and non-binary people stating “there are only two genders: male and female” ⁸.

In 2019, at the World Congress of Families (WCF) in Verona, we witness how global political actors collaborate with prominent Christian activists, when ‘ultraconservative evangelical pastor Jim Garlow… shook hands with European political leaders including Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini,’[5]. The WCF, and other networks, work towards pro-life, anti-LGBTQ societies where the heteronormative family is protected from gender ideology [6]. Graff and Korolczuk highlight the importance of organisations such as the WCF in creating Transatlantic cooperation between conservatives and political actors, which is essential in ensuring the anti-gender movement continues to grow.

When we truly understand the power of the far right and the Church, it is difficult to see a future where liberals can put out the fires of this culture war. I fear for those who do not fit within this gender ‘binary’ the right has established, and I pose the question: has this regression gone too far? Can we move back onto the path of progress for women’s and LGBTQ rights?

References

[1] https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/71835

[2] https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/71835

[3] https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/gender/2017/12/11/gender-ideology-tracking-its-origins-and-meanings-in-current-gender-politics/

[4]https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/71835

[5] https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/71835

[6] https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/71835

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