On September 26th and 27th 2024 the Swedish chapter of the CCINDLE project organized a conference on the theme of “Exploring the relation between anti-gender politics and democracy in the Baltic Sea region and beyond” at Södertörn University in Stockholm, Sweden.
During the conference, 40 participants — including researchers, civil society actors and politicians — analyzed various aspects of contemporary anti-gender politics in the Baltic Sea area and Central and Eastern Europe. Some of the topics discussed were the importance of reproduction of the “white” heterosexual family in anti-gender discourses and politics, queer and trans struggles, conceptualizations of anti-gender politics in relation to de-democratization, illiberalism and fascism, physical and epistemic violence, and the relationality of race and gender. Another salient theme was how a dichotomous understanding of “weak” democracies (in Central Eastern Europe) versus “strong” democracies (in the Nordic countries) seems oversimplistic and obsolete given the political development in recent years in the Baltic Sea Area.
The highlight of the conference was a roundtable with Seinab Hilowle (The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education/RFSU), Ulrika Westerlund (MP from the Green Party), and Barbora Majdisova (Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights/RFSL Newcomers). In this roundtable, the participants analyzed the current political conjuncture in Sweden and the threats posed by governmental policies to people racialized as non-white, migrants, queer and trans people, feminists, and the state of democracy in general.
The conference constituted a lively, intellectually stimulating, and much appreciated space for exchange of ideas among researchers from various national and disciplinary contexts, as well as beyond academia. Perhaps it also left the participants with a feeling that another world is still possible.
Author: Hansalbin Sältenberg, Södertörn University. 4th November 2024