UN Women Calls Gender-Criticals An Extremist Anti-rights Movement
In a shot at "gender critical" activists, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women announced that trans rights are not opposed to women's rights for Pride Month.
In an announcement for Pride Month, UN Women—the United Nations entity responsible for global women's issues—announced that anti-rights movements are on the rise across the world with respect to LGBTQ+ people. The organization highlighted steps being taken in several countries to target transgender people, women, and LGBTQ+ people with overtly discriminatory policies and restrictions. UN Women also explicitly called out several movements as "anti-rights," including the "gender-critical" movement, which frames women's rights as being in opposition to transgender people.
On June 11th, UN Women took to social media to sound the alarm on the surge of anti-LGBTQ+ movements, which have been fueled by a 50% funding increase over the past decade. The UN's arm for global women's issues highlighted how these anti-rights movements are gaining traction worldwide, notably those trying to pit trans rights against women's rights. "Some try to frame the human rights of transgender people as being at odds with women's rights, for instance, asserting that trans women pose a threat to the rights, spaces, and safety of cisgender women," the announcement stated. However, such assertions have no factual basis; transgender people are often the most at risk in such spaces, and hate-fueled rhetoric from these movements can increase that risk.
Perhaps most impactful, though, is the full report released alongside the announcement. In the report, UN Women explicitly calls out the "gender-critical" movement, which has infamous adherents such as J.K. Rowling, as being an extremist "anti-rights" movement similar to "men's rights activism" in rhetoric:
There is a long tradition in which anti-rights movements frame equality for women and LGBTIQ+ people as a threat to so-called “traditional” family values. Movements encompassing “anti-gender”, “gender-critical”, and “men’s rights” have taken this to new extremes, tapping into wider fears about the future of society and accusing feminist and LGBTIQ+ movements of threatening civilization itself.
Anti-rights movements have pushed for overtly discriminatory policies and restrictions on essential services, and even for the criminalization of people based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
Currently, the "gender-critical" movement is most active in the United Kingdom. Recently, Conservative Women and Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch revealed that members of the movement were put in key health positions to produce the Cass Review, a report that resulted in broad-scale attacks on transgender youth and their medical care in the country. Similarly, the U.K. is currently grappling with attempts to promote conversion therapy of transgender youth, ban trans people from bathrooms that align with their gender identity, and exclude trans women from women's hospital wards.
In the United States, Republican candidates and legislators have latched onto similar language, passing "Women's Bills of Rights" that contain little regarding women's rights but instead target transgender women's access to bathrooms and seek to end legal recognition of transgender people altogether. Notably, these legislators and the organizations that push the bills often oppose many other women's rights issues, such as reproductive healthcare access, abortion rights, and generous paid family leave.
The move to declare "gender-criticals" an anti-rights movement is a notable one. In recent years, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Reem Alsalem, has supported "gender-critical" issues and been praised by supporters of the movement for doing so. Notable actions taken by Alsalem include opposing Biden's Title IX policies for transgender youth in the U.S. and the World Health Organization's support for self-determined gender identity. In these policies, Alsalem explicitly frames women's rights and the safety of women's spaces as being in competition with transgender inclusion. Alsalem has also historically shared content from far-right, anti-LGBTQ+ organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom International, which has promoted anti-LGBTQ+ policies globally.
The United Nations has an important role to play in the coming years to combat international disinformation regarding LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender individuals. SPLC-designated hate organizations such as the Society for Evidence in Gender Medicine and Genspect have gained power and operate in multiple countries to oppose transgender rights. Victories obtained in one country are then used as justification to get other countries to follow suit. In the U.S., they are likewise used in court fights and legislative hearings over transgender rights. The UN's move signals that such international attacks on transgender people may be beginning to be recognized by one of the world's most important international organizations, and that recognition could be the most crucial step toward combating further attacks.
If the UK spent just half as much time on modern dentistry as they do on trans issues they'd be a lot better off.
I wish the UN would play a more active role in helping at-risk trans women obtain unqualified asylum in safe countries (with asylum = dignified existence, not throwing someone into an internment camp in their destination country), who are now in places that are eroding their rights (and if the GOP wins elections in November, the U.S. will quickly be added to that category). And in emphasizing that persecution and discrimination based on gender identity is and should be a legitimate reason to be granted asylum.