EPF Director Neil Datta on the growing power of anti-gender movements, their increasing professionalisation and the role of religion

May 26, 2026
IPS Journal

You describe today’s anti-gender movement as ‘the next wave’. What is meant by this?

By ‘the next wave’, I mean that in terms of the anti-gender movement – the movement against sexual and reproductive rights, sexual minorities, gender and children – we’re dealing with a fundamentally different movement than what we had become accustomed to. We used to think of it as religious social conservatism, mainly about accommodating certain social values. But what we are dealing with now is a highly organised, strategic political movement with clear ambitions to gain access to power and reshape society.

That is what we need to understand about this ‘next wave’. It is no longer the past anti-abortion activism. It is a political project that is pushing societies towards de-democratisation.

Continued: https://www.ips-journal.eu/interviews/these-are-no-longer-amateurs-with-billboards-9063/