By Blaise Rego
Anti-gender thought and ideas have become mainstream across Europe over the past few years. States ranging from the UK to Hungary have tried to combat the idea that gender should be taught as a construct. There are massive difference’s though on ow and why this occurring.
In countries like Hungary and Poland the pressure of anti gender/LGBTQ+ comes from top down pressure that is initiated by the government in power. Their leaders have made pushes that try to eliminate discussions about gender and sexuality, this has allowed and normalized attacks and violence against this community. In theses communities we have seen resistance in the form on new media as discussed in the pink news article, about the transgender teen in Hungary.
In comparison in the UK the anti gender/LBGTQ+, the push is coming from bellow. swells of anti LGBTQ+ feeling have come to the surface following Brexit and further rightwing leaders coming to power. These leaders don’t wish to push off a larger swath of the population so they are not as extreme as eastern European leaders in their anti-gender and LGBTQ+ rhetoric so the swell of violence comes from the population. A greater swath of the population has begun to view discussions later as the “enemy”, stating that it’s a woke liberal agenda that is destroying conservative views.
this is the same and result as we see in Poland and Hungary but with this main difference being that where the push of this anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment comes from is inverse. This is an uninspiring result that is worrying for the future of gender discussions going forward.
Hate 2.0 
What I find troubling about the Polish case is how Canada and other Western European countries have turned a blind eye to discrimination in Poland now that they have become instrumental to the NATO effort in supporting Ukraine. Gender discrimination and hate crimes are still happening in Poland, and let’s not forget that not long before the war broke out, Polish border guards were shooting water canons at Syrian migrants crossing the border from Belarus. Not to mention that Poland, like Hungary, is one of the EU’s backsliding democracies. These things should not be left out of the equation when Canada engages with countries like Poland, even when it is for such an important cause like helping Ukraine and Ukrainian migrants. Unfortunately, it happens far too often in international relations.