A Brussels-based organisation with a lot of funding from the EU has produced an extraordinary report which criticises many organisations as hate groups, including LGB International and many of our European affiliates. Without any evidence, it claims we are part of an “anti-gender movement”. Of course, we believe in sex, not gender ideology but they have created the term to lump us together with anti-abortion organisations. The following is our response to this report:
LGB International is the global federation of grassroot organizations of lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Nine of our European national affiliates (Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) are mentioned in this glossy and well-funded report with the scary title The Hate Review: How the anti-gender movement spread across Europe, 2000-2025. The descriptions of the activities of these organizations are very brief and superficial, and it seems that they are mentioned only to attempt to put a stigma of “hate” and “anti-gender movement” on us.
Organizations in LGB International are neither “hateful” nor part of the kind of “anti-gender movement” that you have conceived. We fully support women’s rights, and our main concerns are the importance of sexual orientation and our opposition to medical so-called “gender affirming care” for minors. Our work is based on a biological understanding of “sex”, which is different from “gender”. Gender consists of cultural customs, social norms, stereotypes and expectations falsely associated with each sex. Neither our emphasis on biological sex nor our disbelief in the contested concept of gender identity is “hate”. We view the report’s use of the ill-defined term “anti-gender movement” as solely derogatory and a slur that lumps together unrelated phenomena. Such labels have been used and will be used as a reason for cancellation and de-platforming of individuals and organizations mentioned in the report, undermining freedom of speech which appears to be the intention of this misguided and authoritarian report.
LGB International considers the report as a direct threat to free speech and freedom of opinion. In it, opposing views are redefined as “contamination” and “hate”, something which is gradually making its way into European laws against “hate speech”. No European politician should take this report seriously. It has no legitimacy and the effects of its policies are chilling for a healthy liberal democracy.
LGB International has two questions with some sub-questions to the editors of the report:
Question 1: Are LGB organizations entitled to independent representation?
Does the report accept that lesbian, gay and bisexual people have the right to establish independent organizations and to disagree with mainstream LGBTIQ+ advocacy organizations on questions of women’s rights, sex, gender identity and public policy?
Question 2: What would disprove the report's interpretation?
Why does the report offer no evidence that organizations which advocate for LGB rights are part of a so-called “anti-gender movement” when in fact we oppose the sexism and old-fashioned stereotypes promoted by gender ideology?