Attacks on Trans Rights are Harming Women’s Health

Written by Anil Padavatan, GATE Health Lead

“Hate crimes are increasing again,” said a colleague from a trans-led organization in East Africa during a recent online meeting. His voice carried strain and exhaustion but also deep determination, as he described the recent surge in violent attacks and his organization’s steadfast efforts to support affected community members. 

These attacks are not isolated incidents. They are part of a global trend where anti-rights organizations - many backed by well-funded extremist groups from the Global North - are rolling back protections for trans and gender diverse people. These groups push for legislation that criminalizes trans people’s existence, fuelling violence toward our communities and increasing barriers to accessing health services. However, the impact of these attacks extends far beyond the trans community. They are part of a broader global strategy to directly undermine women’s health and reproductive rights under the guise of ‘protecting’ women.

Increasing attacks on trans rights are part of a coordinated agenda

Anti-gender and anti-rights actors use strategies of division, pitting marginalized communities and movements against each other. Trans and gender diverse people are a very small part of the general population. Yet massive amounts of funding have been poured into disinformation campaigns vilifying the trans and gender diverse community and medical professionals who provide gender-affirming care. False claims that trans and gender diverse people pose a threat to women and children are used to justify laws and policies that strip trans and gender diverse people’s access to rights, including health rights. The attack on basic human rights extends far beyond the trans and gender diverse community. Anti-gender actors are undermining decades of gains in gender equality by fracturing feminist movements, making the erosion of health rights socially acceptable and distracting public attention away from a broader agenda that undermines access to sexual and reproductive health rights.

For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, anti-gender and anti-rights organizations have been instrumental in introducing new anti-LGBTIQ+ legislation or greater enforcement of colonial-era laws. In hostile legal contexts, it is easy for people to commit transphobic and homophobic hate crimes, and difficult for LGBTIQ+ persons to report these crimes. As clinics and other safe spaces close down due to international funding cuts, it is increasingly difficult for survivors of attacks to access medical care. Trans and gender diverse people, who are often the most visible members of the LGBTIQ+ community, are particularly vulnerable to this violence, with trans women of color experiencing very high levels of violence. The same anti-rights and anti-gender organizations that have sponsored anti-LGBTIQ+ legislation are also targeting women’s health rights. In sub-Saharan Africa, where adolescent girls and young women are vulnerable to HIV, anti-gender organizations have undermined the provision of comprehensive sex education in schools. In many countries across sub-Saharan Africa, sex education in schools is either banned, underfunded or focused on discredited abstinence-only messaging, which leaves girls and young women without the knowledge and tools to make effective choices and protect themselves from HIV. This dire situation has received relatively little attention because anti-gender organizations have used disinformation campaigns to focus public debate on the supposed threat posed by LGBTIQ+ persons, particularly the trans and gender diverse community. False narratives that trans and gender diverse people are somehow a threat to children and women have stoked public outrage and distracted attention away from the actual harm caused by the failure to provide science-based health information to young people.

The same strategy is being played out across global regions, as anti-gender actors seek to increase mainstream acceptance of limiting access to sexual and reproductive rights by first targeting the trans and gender diverse community. After high-profile attacks on gender-affirming care for trans youth, we are now bracing ourselves for attacks that undermine the bodily autonomy of adults. We expect that anti-gender groups will increasingly use false narratives about the need to protect ‘“vulnerable’” trans adults from gender-affirming care, with trans and gender diverse people being framed as incapable of making decisions about their own bodies. This should sound an immediate alarm bell because it weakens the protection of the right of adults to make decisions about their own bodies. There is already anti-rights rhetoric that women should be ‘“protected’” against information on reproductive choices that includes the right to decide not to have children. In this context, recent calls to replace the concept of gender equality with ideas of women being defined by their “biological sex” and “biological realities” are deeply troubling. While these narratives ostensibly target trans and gender diverse persons, they threaten the rights and autonomy of all women. Defining women solely in terms of their reproductive capacity is directly aligned with extreme anti-rights agendas that seek to roll back gains in gender equality and implement reproductive health policies based on political ideology.

Women’s sexual and reproductive health rights - what’s at stake?

Already, attacks on sexual and reproductive healthcare, especially abortion services, are escalating. In 2025, World Health Day emphasizes maternal and child health, underscoring that access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services is critical to improving outcomes. Yet, restrictive policies based on ideology rather than scientific evidence continue to erode these rights, disproportionately harming those who are already vulnerable. 

This moment demands a fundamental question: If the erosion of trans rights is being used as a tool to dismantle broader gender equality, what does that mean for the future of women’s health worldwide?

Right now, a needless tragedy is unfolding as highly successful HIV programs are being defunded. In Sub-Saharan Africa, women are vulnerable to HIV because of deep-rooted inequalities and systemic gender-based violence, which have complex roots in colonial systems of oppression. Marginalized women, including sex workers, trans women, women who use drugs and women with disabilities, are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence and socio-economic marginalization, which in turn increase vulnerability to HIV. Gender-based violence is also perpetrated against other people who are perceived as transgressing societal gender norms, such as trans men and other gender diverse persons. Gender-based violence is also exacerbated in conflict situations. HIV programs in the region have not only been successful in providing HIV testing, treatment and prevention services to millions of people but have also made progress in addressing the underlying drivers of HIV, including inequalities and discrimination. Cuts to international HIV funding have been implemented amidst much trumpeting about the need to defund programs that benefit trans and gender diverse people, but behind the rhetoric about “gender ideology” is the reality that the funding cuts are causing harm to all women who benefitted from these programs. 

Gender-based violence in conflict situations is a real, horrific and growing problem. Violent transphobic attacks against trans and gender diverse people are a reality. In contrast, the supposed threat that trans women pose to other women is completely imaginary. We know this because we have real-world evidence. In countries where the rights of trans and gender diverse people are protected, including Malta, which has a progressive legal gender recognition framework, this has not led to an increase in violence against women. In fact, greater recognition of trans rights in Malta has occurred in parallel with greater efforts to combat gender-based violence. Protecting the rights of marginalized members of society strengthens access to rights for all members of society. Ensuring that marginalized community members have access to healthcare services is a crucial element of effective health responses. The stakes are very high - if effective, human rights-based health programming is abandoned in favor of ideology, there will be dire consequences for public health, especially women’s health.

Collective action to protect health rights for all

The trans rights movement is at the forefront of countering anti-gender and anti-rights attacks. However, this cannot and should not be our struggle alone. To counter the divisive anti-gender agenda that weakens health rights, we need collective action to ensure that gender equality remains a pillar of international health policy. We need funders, activists, officials and policymakers to unite in addressing the very real threats to sexual and reproductive health rights. 

Now more than ever, we need international donors to invest in the HIV response as a crucial element of global security. Funding for community-led health services and health rights advocacy is vital to ensuring sustainable health responses. Trans-led organizations have been hard-hit by the HIV funding cuts, and GATE is urgently raising funds to allow community-led organizations to continue providing safe spaces where community members can access healthcare services. 

We call on feminist organizations around the world to join us and our partner organizations in an inclusive feminist response that rejects the tactics of distraction, division and polarization. We urgently need to work towards access to sexual and reproductive health rights for all women, including trans women, women sex workers, women who use drugs and women with disabilities. Building solidarity and partnering with other marginalized communities will strengthen national health rights advocacy. In a collective effort, every contribution makes a difference -  individuals who are able to contribute financially can donate to GATE and support trans-led organizations who are on the frontline, countering anti-gender attacks. We are facing some of the greatest challenges to gender equality and health rights in decades, yet what unites us is far greater than what divides us. By standing together, we can ensure a healthier future for everyone. 

Further reading

GATE. (2025). The impact of the US foreign aid freeze on trans and gender diverse communities: A call to action. Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE). https://gate.ngo/knowledge-portal/article/impact-us-foreign-aid-freeze-on-trans-and-gender-diverse-communities/

GATE. (2023). How does anti-gender opposition impact trans and gender diverse health rights? Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE). https://gate.ngo/knowledge-portal/article/anti-gender-opposition-impact-trans-and-gender-diverse-health-rights/

GATE. (2024). Recognizing, Documenting and Addressing Anti-Gender Opposition: A Toolkit. Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE). https://gate.ngo/knowledge-portal/publication/download-anti-gender-opposition-toolkit/ 

Martínez, J., et al. (2021). Manufacturing moral panic: Weaponizing children to undermine gender justice and human rights. The Elevate Children Funders Group & Global Philanthropy Project (GPP).https://globalphilanthropyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Manufacturing-Moral-Panic-Report.pdf