The Hate Review

Country Group: Nascent mobilisation

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

Switzerland’s anti-gender movement over the last decades has operated almost exclusively through direct democracy mechanisms, consistently losing at the ballot box on major questions — the Registered Partnership Act, the anti-discrimination law, same-sex marriage — while succeeding in shaping public discourse and achieving targeted victories through administrative and executive action. The movement’s centre of gravity has shifted over time: from conservative Christian and EDU-led campaigns focused on family values and religious conscience in the 2000s, to a broader coalition deploying an explicit “gender ideology” frame from the early 2020s onwards, increasingly connected to transnational right-wing networks. The most active current battleground is gender-related healthcare for minors, where cantonal executive measures since 2024 have achieved significant restrictions. The overall trajectory is one of a movement that has not rolled back established rights but has become more institutionally embedded and more capable of operating through administrative channels that bypass direct democracy.