The Gender Agenda's Agenda: How “Tabloid Media Sensationalist Scumbag[s]” Mobilize Affect to Promote Transphobia

In 2023, Australia's 7NEWS Spotlight released The Gender Agenda, a documentary that purportedly, “[uncovers] the irreparable damage being visited on a generation of confused kids wrongly diagnosed as transgender.” Using critical discourse analysis and affect theory, we analyze the documentary's argumentative strategies. We conclude that in the absence of compelling factual evidence, Spotlight uses emotion to convince audiences to distrust gender transition, sowing fear to orient cisgender audiences away from trans populations. Spotlight mobilizes hostile affects when condemning Australia's affirmative healthcare model, implicitly encouraging audiences to orient themselves away from trans‐inclusive policies and contest the affirmative care model. By analyzing how The Gender Agenda produces fear, we demonstrate how anti‐trans sentiment is created and disseminated. Additionally, we link transphobic activism in Australia to the broader conservative turn sweeping the West.