Anti-vax, anti-mask, anti-gender: The transphobic turn of the “freedom movement” during COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), as with much of the world, experienced a proliferation of far-right and populist organisations resisting public health measures and perceived government overreach. After the repeal of the COVID-19 Protection Framework brought an end to vaccine and mask wearing mandates, these organisations sought new issues to mobilise their supporters. In 2023, coinciding with the visit of a prominent “gender critical” activist and the introduction of new questions about gender to the census, two such organisations—Voices for Freedom and New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science—incorporated an objection to trans identities and a defence of “traditional” gendered social roles into their respective political projects. This pivot to transphobia aligned such organisations with more extreme and explicitly white-nationalist elements of NZ’s right, such as the fascist organisation Action Zealandia. This paper presents a secondary analysis of data collected as part of the first author’s PhD project which focussed on the engagement of far-right organisations with scientific knowledge during the pandemic. We examine dialogue from the aforementioned organisations to see how this transphobic turn was incorporated into the ideology of the COVID-19 focused organisations, what purpose it served, and how it relates to the broader context of NZ’s fascist-right.