To protect democracy, pay attention to gender
By Saskia Brechenmacher, Laura Livingston, and Miriam Juan-Torres Gonzalez
Editor’s note: What does gender have to do with protecting democracy? Shouldn’t we avoid talking about gender to avoid deepening polarization?
Perhaps…but ignoring gender comes with its own risks.
This piece (courtesy of Miriam Juan-Torres Gonzalez, Saskia Brechenmacher, and Laura Livingston) is an incredible rundown of how attacks on LGBTQ and women’s rights are used by autocrats to dismantle democracy.
And, they have a list of action items for democracy funders and practitioners, which we love! We hope you find their piece useful.
In early 2026, Kansas passed SB 244, which invalidated all state-issued driver’s licenses with updated gender markers. For transgender Kansans without a passport, the impact is immediate: they may not be able to meet the state’s strict voter ID requirements and vote in the midterms. Even those who obtain new IDs risk being turned away if their appearance does not match the gender marker on their document.
In the United States, these and other attacks on LGBTQ and women’s rights are often framed as “culture wars.” Our research shows that they are better understood as parts of a broader strategy to construct a social hierarchy, push targeted groups out of public life, and hollow out democracy. What begins as attacks on transgender people or “gender ideology” often expands to a much wider set of actors and institutions, enabling new restrictions on education, civil society, and public institutions.
Many U.S. democracy advocates worry that engaging on gender issues risks deepening polarization or narrowing coalitions. That concern is real. But stepping back from these issues entirely also carries risks: it enables harm against targeted communities and allows illiberal actors to reshape the political and cultural terrain in ways that weaken societal support for pluralism, equality, and democracy more broadly.
Globally, gender is being weaponized to advance illiberal and anti-democratic political projects. Narratives generating fear around “gender ideology” and trans people in particular are spread to fuel moral panic, with the aim of mobilizing voters, building new coalitions, and generating support for measures that restrict targeted groups’ political participation and rights while expanding state power.
These narratives are effective because they tap into deeply held beliefs about family, identity, and social order. They seek to define clear enemies, fuel polarization, and legitimize hierarchies. Arguments about gender—framed around what is natural or common sense—become socially acceptable entry points to question core tenets of liberal democracy.
Democracy defenders need to start by recognizing the ideologies and strategies driving these campaigns. There is a difference between policy disagreements—about parental leave, for instance, or the rules governing trans participation in elite sports—and measures that deny legal recognition, enable legal discrimination, impose censorship, and fuel violence. This distinction is ultimately one between accommodating different identities and ways of life and imposing a single, state-backed vision that constrains others—sometimes going so far as pushing entire groups out of public life altogether.
There are several additional avenues for democracy funders and practitioners to engage:
Expand your analysis. Track gender-related legislation, narrative shifts, and disinformation to understand how ideas about gender are being used to normalize ideas of hierarchy and exclusion. In other words, situate these efforts within the authoritarian playbook.
Protect participation. Treat gendered harassment, violence, and disinformation as core threats to democratic participation. They shape who can safely participate in public life—across the political spectrum.
Invest in cultural change. Alongside efforts to address legal discrimination and political exclusion, we must focus on the cultural domain. We need more investments in cultural narratives and online interventions to counter exclusionary frames and provide alternative forms of belonging and community—with attention to boys and men, but without leaving girls behind.
Strengthen democracy coalitions. Pro-democracy coalitions must be resilient to deliberate polarization efforts. Not everyone needs to agree on every gender-related policy. But democracy advocates do need to distinguish between policy disagreements and measures that veer into anti-democratic territory and coordinate effective responses when that line is crossed.
Adaptive strategies. In some cases, framing attacks on women’s or LGBTQ rights—like SB 244 in Kansas—as attacks on core democratic principles can help mobilize public opposition to those measures. In other cases, the smarter strategy may be to show how attacks on the LGBTQ community, DEI, and related issues distract from other challenges, while simultaneously countering fear-mongering narratives. Determining which strategy will work best requires spaces for dialogue across communities that rarely work together, including democracy advocates and those focused on masculinities, LGBTQ rights, online radicalization, and gender equality.
For those looking to dig deeper, a growing ecosystem of researchers and organizations is beginning to grapple with how anti-gender movements, misogyny, and LGBTQ scapegoating intersect with democratic erosion, and what effective responses might look like. Useful starting points include the Arch Collaborative, Equimundo, the Young Men Research Project, the Polarization & Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, the Countering Backlash Initiative, #shepersisted, and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
Laura Livingston is the Senior Director of Field Support & Strategy at Over Zero.
Miriam Juan-Torres is the Co-Director of Research at the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley.
Saskia Brechenmacher is a Senior Fellow in the Democracy, Conflict and Governance program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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