The Hate Review

Key indicators in 2025: Contamination 2.00 / 4  ·  Impact 1.78 / 4

The trajectory of the anti-gender movement over the past decades has been one of late emergence followed by rapid acceleration. Belgium’s early adoption of progressive legislation — same-sex marriage in 2003, adoption in 2006, the Transgender Act in 2017 — preceded the European anti-gender wave, limiting mobilisation opportunities for conservative actors in the 2000s and early 2010s. The movement remained modest and fragmented, confined largely to Catholic pro-life circles and marginal far-right formations. The decisive rupture came with the 2022–2023 EVRAS crisis, which produced an unprecedented mobilisation combining Catholic traditionalists, Muslim conservative organisations, antivax networks and conspiracy-adjacent actors, accompanied by acts of violence against schools. Simultaneously, anti-“woke” and anti-trans narratives migrated into mainstream party politics, with Vlaams Belang, N-VA and MR incorporating anti-gender discourse into their electoral platforms. The formation of the Arizona coalition in 2025 under Prime Minister Bart De Wever marks the most significant consolidation of this shift.