“Silence against trans ideology isn’t kindness—it’s surrender.” With that warning, British activist Kellie-Jay Keen, founder of the Let Women Speak movement, set the tone for the debate held on Tuesday at the European Parliament under the title “The Trans Ideology Threat: EU Women’s Rights in Danger.”
The event, organised by Hungarian MEP András László (Fidesz, Patriots for Europe) with the support of the think tank MCC Brussels, brought together academics, activists, and public officials to discuss the implications of the new “LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2026–2030” promoted by the European Commission.
For more than two hours, the speakers argued that EU institutions “have confused equality with ideology” and that the proposed framework “puts at risk women’s rights, national sovereignty, and freedom of expression.”
In his opening remarks, András László accused the European Commission of overstepping its competences by promoting policies on family, education, and gender that “should be decided exclusively by member states.”
“Family policy is a national competence,” he said, “yet the elites in Brussels are trying to impose their will on member states.”
The MEP noted that the EU’s new strategy seeks to harmonise gender recognition laws and fund NGOs that promote trans activism. “Gender ideology is anti-woman, anti-family, and anti-European,” he warned. “We must restore common sense in Europe—and for that, let women speak.”
Posie Parker’s warning
The intervention of Kellie-Jay Keen, better known as Posie Parker, focused on the social and educational impact of gender-identity discourse. “Teachers tell children to be kind,” she said, “but kindness now means silence.”
Keen denounced the growing ideological pressure in European schools, where “teachers introduce gender-identity concepts at increasingly younger ages.” “We are teaching girls that their boundaries don’t matter,” she explained, “and we’re calling it inclusion.”
The activist also criticised the censorship of dissent: “I’ve been questioned by British police three times for saying men cannot become women. That’s the level of thought control we’ve reached.” She issued a direct appeal: “Speak as often as you can, because if you stay silent, others will speak for you—and they already are.”
Follow the money
Canadian sociologist Ashley Frawley, visiting research fellow at MCC Brussels, presented her report Indoctrinating Children, which analyses how the European Union funds NGOs that produce gender-focused educational materials.
“The EU doesn’t have competence in education,” she pointed out, “yet it acts as if it owns the classroom.” According to Frawley, the EU uses indirect funding mechanisms “to insert gender ideology into school curricula under the guise of non-discrimination and diversity.”
Her research documents how these programmes are presented as “best practices” and end up shaping teacher training across multiple countries, even in those where national laws forbid LGBT teaching for minors. “It’s an ideological colonisation funded with public money,” she said.
Frawley warned about the legal consequences of this trend: “If legal sex becomes a feeling, sex-based protections cannot be enforced. Data, sports, refugees—all collapse into mixed spaces.”
She also added, “Disagreement is pathologised as hate. Women defending their rights are treated as extremists.”
The event concluded with a shared reflection on the risk that Europe could confuse tolerance with ideological conformity. “Truth, freedom, and biology are not negotiable,” stressed John O’Brien, moderator of the session and spokesperson for MCC Brussels.
For the organisers, the discussion marks the beginning of a long-overdue debate at the heart of the EU. As Ashley Frawley ironically put it, quoting a common bureaucratic mindset, “Europe would be a great place if it weren’t for the people.”
