The Hate Review
France
Key indicators in 2025: Contamination 2.78 / 4 · Impact 2.00 / 4
The anti-gender movement in France has been continuously active since the late 1990s, building infrastructure through successive legislative battles over civil partnerships, same-sex marriage, medically assisted reproduction and legal gender recognition. It crystallised into its most visible form with La Manif pour Tous in 2012–2013, which organised the largest anti-LGBTIQ+ protests in European history. After failing to prevent same-sex marriage, it pivoted to education, forcing the government to abandon its ABCD de l’égalité programme in 2014, then reactivated against medically assisted reproduction in 2019–2021. Since 2022 the movement has undergone a qualitative acceleration: anti-gender positions have moved from the margins of the parliamentary right into the mainstream, a consolidated conservative media ecosystem has normalised these narratives, and new actors — so-called “gender critical” organisations and far-right identitarian groupuscules — have expanded the coalition and shifted its primary target towards the rights of trans people and LGBTIQ+ visibility in public space.
| Year | Abortion & Reproductive Rights | Sex & Relationship Education | LGBTIQ+ Visibility | Partnerships, Marriage & Family | Legal Gender Recognition & Healthcare | Istanbul Convention | Language & Gender Studies | Civil Society & Democratic Space |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s |
OMA |
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| 2000 | ||||||||
| 2001 | ||||||||
| 2002 | ||||||||
| 2003 | ||||||||
| 2004 | ||||||||
| 2005 |
M |
|||||||
| 2006 |
M |
|||||||
| 2007 |
M |
|||||||
| 2008 |
M |
|||||||
| 2009 |
M |
|||||||
| 2010 |
M |
|||||||
| 2011 |
M |
P |
||||||
| 2012 |
M |
|||||||
| 2013 |
OLMI |
|||||||
| 2014 |
MT |
OD |
OM |
|||||
| 2015 |
M |
LT |
||||||
| 2016 |
M |
O |
||||||
| 2017 |
MT |
IT |
||||||
| 2018 |
M |
|||||||
| 2019 |
M |
M |
||||||
| 2020 |
M |
M |
||||||
| 2021 |
M |
OM |
P |
|||||
| 2022 |
OM |
|||||||
| 2023 |
M |
D |
M |
P |
||||
| 2024 |
OM |
I |
PMIAT |
P |
||||
| 2025 |
M |
OLA |
PM |
|||||
| 2026 |
M |
P |
| OOpposition to progressive law or regulation/policy | PProposal or implementation of anti-gender law or regulation/policy | LStrategic litigation |
| MProtest or demonstration | IPetition or citizen initiative | AAdvocacy campaign |
| DDisinformation campaign | TTransnational interference |
The evolution of the anti-gender movement in France