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Paper short abstract

This work aims to explore the discursive strategies of inclusion/exclusion in the Spanish trans-exclusionary space and their reproduction in social media by far-right influencers.

Paper long abstract

In December 2022, the Spanish Parliament passed a new legislation on trans rights. The possibility of changing one’s sex in the Civil Registry without the need for treatment or a medical report (known as “gender self-determination”) was a new trans right that sparked the most discussion and debate. Conservatives, far-rightists, antifeminists, and trans-exclusionary feminists have built a common discursive front against this new right. Although they differ profoundly in their strategies and arguments, this strange political conglomerate converges in its exclusion of trans people through an understanding of “female sex” in nativist terms. This common discursive front was transferred to the public sphere through social media and the promotion of the nativist-sexual framework by far-right influencers.

This work aims to explore the discursive strategies of inclusion/exclusion in the Spanish trans-exclusionary space and their reproduction in social media by far-right influencers. First, I analyze political acts against the Spanish Trans Law where trans-exclusionary feminists, far-right politicians and antifeminist activists participated. Then, I conduct a digital ethnography of different Spanish far-right accounts to observe the degree to which the trans-exclusionary message is reproduced. Based on this material, I observed the use of the nativist framework in Spanish trans-exclusionary discourse and its reproduction in social media. Trans-exclusionary front raises a (cis)gender border that understands cis women as natives of femininity, trans women as illegal immigrants who are potential sexual aggressors, and trans men as infected with “queer ideology.”