Panel: RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY ON THE FRONTIER OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES



31_2.5 - "BIOLOGICAL FACTS" IN THE DIGITAL AGE: ANTI-GENDER POLITICS, RELIGIOUS POPULISM, AND DIGITAL RELIGION

AUTHORS:
Heinonen M. (University of Helsinki ~ Helsinki ~ Finland)
Text:
Recent debates around gender, legislation, and "biological reality" have become key sites where religion, politics, and digital communication intersect. This paper examines how religiously framed anti-gender rhetoric is articulated in contemporary political discourse and how these arguments are embedded in digitally mediated activism. The analysis focuses on parliamentary debates surrounding the Act on Legal Recognition of Gender (2022-2023), examining how Members of Finnish Parliament mobilize religious language, symbols, and moral claims to oppose gender self-determination. The study explores how references to Christianity, "natural order," and "biological facts" function as discursive strategies through which gender diversity is framed as a moral societal threat. In these debates, gender becomes a contested epistemological terrain where scientific, religious, and political claims intersect. These parliamentary arguments are embedded in the digital ecosystem of contemporary anti-gender politics. The anti-gender movement has developed as a highly networked and transnational phenomenon, with digital platforms playing a crucial role in circulating narratives, mobilizing supporters, and constructing alternative knowledge communities. Through social media and online campaigns, religious actors frame gender diversity as a threat to religious freedom, family, and social order. Situating this analysis within the field of digital religion, the paper highlights how online environments function as spaces where religious meanings and political agendas are negotiated and amplified. By connecting parliamentary discourse with digitally mediated activism, the study demonstrates how anti-gender politics operates simultaneously across institutional and digital arenas. The paper contributes to broader discussions on religious populism, digital religion, and the role of emerging technologies in shaping contemporary struggles over gender, authority, and social norms.