The rhetoric of “saving children” has long been central to the religious right playbook in the United States, especially in campaigns against abortion rights, gay/lesbian rights, and against comprehensive sex education. Today the guardians of the traditional family, increasingly globalized, have shifted their focus to protecting women and girls from so-called “gender ideology.” These campaigns emerge in relation to a renewed authoritarian populism which seeks consent for deeply conservative policies by claiming to represent “the people” against the supposed threat posed by minority groups aligned with elites. In these campaigns, feminists and LGBT people are charged with conspiring with medical professionals and teachers to indoctrinate children and undermine fixed notions of gender and sexuality. Rather than see these campaigns as single-issue attacks on feminists or LGBT people, we should understand them as attacks on democracy; an effective defense against them therefore requires us to promote a vision of inclusive democracy.

中文翻译：

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性别、威权民粹主义和对民主的攻击

“拯救儿童”的言论长期以来一直是美国宗教右翼剧本的核心，特别是在反对堕胎权、同性恋权利和反对全面性教育的运动中。如今，日益全球化的传统家庭的守护者已将重点转向保护妇女和女孩免受所谓的“性别意识形态”的影响。这些运动的出现与新的威权民粹主义有关，民粹主义声称代表“人民”反对与精英结盟的少数群体构成的所谓威胁，以寻求对极度保守政策的同意。在这些运动中，女权主义者和 LGBT 人士被指控与医疗专业人员和教师合谋向儿童灌输思想，破坏固定的性别和性观念。我们不应将这些运动视为针对女权主义者或 LGBT 人群的单一问题攻击，而应将其理解为对民主的攻击；因此，要有效防范这些问题，我们就需要促进包容性民主的愿景。