Hostile landscapes: how do gender-restrictive actors contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people?

Scholars and activists use the terms ‘anti-gender’ or ‘gender-restrictive’ to describe well-funded, transnational networks of actors who variously oppose gender equality, women’s rights, LGBTQI+ rights and rights for other minoritised groups.

Academic literature and news reports show examples that violence against LGBTQI+ people is increasing in many countries, in a climate of fear and repression, but analysis has not yet established a link between gender-restrictive movements and increased gender-based violence (GBV) against LGBTQI+ people. The report contributes evidence to this suggestion. It brings together literature on gender-restrictive movements with that on violence against LGBTQI+ people, and complements this with empirical data from interviews with 14 LGBTQI+ rights activists and policymakers from different world regions. It highlights possible connections to violence, and activist strategies of resistance.  

The report points towards the critical understanding that GBV against LGBTQI+ people is a means to maintain patriarchal gender norms, by disciplining gender and sexual identities that challenge these norms. Gender-restrictive rhetoric spreads hatred against LGBTQI+ people, often through constructing them as a threat to the nation and traditional family values. The narrative of threat and disruption creates a climate where violence is normalised and legitimised as a means to maintain the patriarchal status quo. In other words, the issue is much more significant than a contestation between people who are pro- or anti-LGBTQI+ rights. It is a fundamental battle for control over the normative structure of societies. Violence is sometimes a means to this end.