Courage is contagious. So, it turns out, is sanity. President Donald Trump’s executive order affirming the male-female sex binary is already having an international impact. Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, in response to journalist questions about the statement, cautiously affirmed that he, too, only “knows of two genders.” On January 24, Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) concurred in stronger language, posting on X:
Trump is right, there are only two genders: male and female. Let’s bring common sense back to our society. No more woke madness or indoctrination. No more nonsense.
Wilders’ populist PVV, which won a quarter of the seats in the Dutch House of Representatives in 2023, plays an outsize role in Dutch politics. Wilders himself proved too controversial to cobble together enough support from coalition partners to become prime minister (a position now held by independent Dick Schoof), but his party is the largest in the House, and his victory—referred to by the Associated Press as “one of the biggest political upsets in Dutch politics since World War II”—gives Wilders significant influence.
Wilders’ opposition to gender ideology is representative of populists across the West. He supports the sexual revolution and abortion, but the transgender movement has become a microcosm of the insanity and totalitarian instincts of the woke progressive project. Wilders, an atheist, does not oppose the cultural revolution that transformed the West after World War II but believes that it has now gone too far. Dutch Christians see Wilders as a conditional ally rather than an ideological fellow traveler.
Throughout his career, Wilders has portrayed himself as a defender of liberal Dutch values—including feminism and gay rights—against the encroaching forces of mass Muslim immigration. His public statements include occasional references to “the Christian character of the nation,” but these are a rhetorical weapon rather than affection for the Dutch Calvinist heritage. Like other clever populist politicians, Wilders is willing to honor Christianity insofar as it helps him create a coalition opposed to mass migration from non-Christian countries.
As the transgender movement’s extremism became increasingly clear, their agenda proved a bridge too far for many defenders of the post-war liberal consensus. In 2022, Wilders’ PVV voted against the Transgender Act, which sought to allow trans-identifying people, including those under the age of 16, to easily change their gender on official documents, citing female safety in sex-segregated spaces—but hedged their bets slightly by calling it “symboolpolitiek” (symbolic politics) that wouldn’t genuinely help trans-identifying people.
In 2024, a majority of MPs voted to “shelve” the law entirely as too controversial. Several other parties voted with the PVV, and the Telegraphnoted that recent polling data “revealed hardening attitudes towards transgender people in the Netherlands, which has traditionally been among the most liberal countries on trans rights.” A national survey indicated only a quarter of Dutch people agreed with the statement: “People should be able to change [sex on] their passport from the age of 16 without a statement from an expert.” The politicians clearly noticed.
“We are absolutely not against changing sex,” stated Nicolien van Vroonhoven, the NSC MP who put the motion forward. “But it should not be too easy either. There are real risks to women’s safety. In England, for example, men are suddenly given access to women’s prisons, and that is not something we should want.” The transgender movement was once seen as the natural successor to the gay rights movement, and the T tacked onto the LGB. Most progressive politicians still believe this—or at least, claim to. Others are not so sure, especially as the last half-decade has given us a good look at what the transgender agenda looks like in practice.
