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On Wednesday, the European Parliament voted to adopt a resolution establishing the European Union’s priorities for negotiations at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the principal global body dedicated to gender equality, which convenes in New York next month. The resolution was progressive in many ways, including protections for abortion access and opposition to online hate speech targeting women. But perhaps its boldest provision was a call for the full recognition of transgender women as women—a statement that has already drawn ire from the global right, which has fought to roll back transgender rights both in the United States and abroad, and one that may signal the European bloc is increasingly willing to defend transgender people on the world stage.
Item (y) of the report recommends that the Council of the European Union “emphasise the importance of the full recognition of trans women as women, noting that their inclusion is essential for the effectiveness of any gender-equality and anti-violence policies” and “call for recognition of and equal access for trans women to protection and support services” when the EU attends the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women next month. The resolution passed 340-141, with 68 members abstaining. Though the resolution is non-binding, it establishes a significant policy position for the European Parliament moving forward.
Significantly, the vote gathered support not only from left-leaning groups but also from the majority of the European People’s Party, the largest and most powerful center-right bloc in the European Parliament. The center-right support drew sharp criticism from the far right: the Patriots for Europe group, which includes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, voted against the resolution and denounced its exclusion from negotiations over the text. The European Conservatives and Reformists, the group of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, also voted against. But their combined opposition was not enough to block the resolution, which passed with support from a broad cross-ideological majority.
The vote puts the European Union on a direct collision course with the United States heading into the same forum. On Trump’s first day in office, he signed a slew of executive orders targeting transgender people, withdrawing federal recognition of transgender identities and ordering agencies to stop funding anything that “promotes gender ideology.” At last year’s session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Trump delegation disassociated itself from the session’s political declaration, declaring that the administration would “defend Americans from unhealthy and extremist gender ideology” and that “women are biologically female, and men are biologically male,” while also rejecting the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development entirely. The two positions are now set to collide again when the Commission convenes in New York next month.
The reaction from the global far right was swift, with many commentators expressing dismay and anger at the progressive policy statement. CitizenGO, a Madrid-based conservative advocacy group, described the resolution as part of a “pro-abortion” and “gender ideology” agenda and said it would campaign against it at the upcoming UN session. Genevieve Gluck, cofounder of anti-trans blog Reduxx, called it “legalizing sexual predation” and accused the European Parliament of trying to “get to children.” Cristian Terhes, president of the Romanian National Conservative Party—which sits in the European Conservatives and Reformists group alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia—said that “recognizing legally that a man who pretends to be a woman is a woman undermines the very essence of our civilization and the progress made in protecting the rights of actual women.” Terhes comes from a conservative party in a country with the one of the worst records on LGBTQ rights of any EU member state.
The resolution will now go to the Council of the European Union ahead of the Commission on the Status of Women next month. The Parliament’s recommendation is not binding on the Council, but it will form a significant foundation for the Council’s stances. The European Parliament will also send its own delegation to the Commission on the Status of Women when it convenes in New York on March 9. Whatever comes of the negotiations there, the Parliament has made its position clear: in a world where conservative leaders of countries are working hard to erase transgender people, Europe may be willing to push acceptance at the world stage.
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