Skip to content

Silvia Carrasco vs. transgender people

Silvia Carrasco Pons is a Spanish social anthropologist and anti-transgender activist. Carrasco is affiliated with several anti-trans organizations, including Women’s Declaration International and Heterodox Academy. Carrasco is president of anti-trans group Feministes de Catalunya and co-founder of DoFemCo, an anti-trans teachers’ group.

Carrasco believes “trans children do not exist; they are being fabricated en masse by a very well-planned and financed initiative that has to do with transhumanism and the loss of women’s rights in democracy.”

Background

Silvia Carrasco Pons attended Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), earning a bachelor’s degree in 1982, a master’s degree in 1986, and a doctorate in 1991, Carrasco did graduate work at Cambridge University in 1982 and postgraduate work from 1997 to 1998 at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Carrasco began teaching at UAB in 1982.

In 2005 Carrasco founded the EMIGRA research group (Education, Migration, Childhood, Gender, Research, Anthropology) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). Until 2007 Carrasco directed the Area of Children and Migration at the Barcelona Institute of Childhood and the Urban World. Carrasco’ work focuses on children, families, and immigration in Spain. In 2009 Carrasco was appointed vice-director of the newly established Centre for the Study and Research on Migrations at UAB and began co-directing the Master’s program on International Migrations. From 2012 to 2015 Carrasco served as Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs and Cooperation at UAB, responsible for equality policies. Carrasco has acted as principal investigator on multiple national and EU-funded research projects, including the Network of Excellence on Migration Studies (2017-2019). In 2024 Carrasco was a candidate for the Partido Feministas al Congreso [The Feminist Party] in the European elections.

Anti-trans activism

Carrasco is president of anti-trans group Feministes de Catalunya and co-founder of DoFemCo (Docentes Feministas por la Coeducación [Feminist Teachers for Coeducation]).

Carrasco is the lead author of the 2022 book La coeducación secuestrada: Crítica feminista a la penetración de las ideas transgeneristas en la educación [Coeducation kidnapped: feminist critique of the penetration of transgender ideas in education]. The other three co-authors are Ana Hidalgo Urtiaga, Araceli Muñoz de Lacalle, and Marina Pibernat Vila. The publisher Editorial Octaedro describes the book’s thesis:

Co-education, the key feminist tool for fighting against patriarchy from within the school system—a patriarchy that persists despite laws declaring us equal—has been hijacked.

What appeared to be a renewed interest in co-education by governments of all stripes is actually a subversion to introduce reactionary transgender ideas into all stages of education. Inspired by queer theory and feigning a transgressive and liberating intention, they assert the existence of a transgender childhood and adolescence, based on another fiction now being propagated by schools themselves: the idea that one can change sex, that one can be born in the wrong body, and that being a woman or a man is a feeling. Regulations have been approved in autonomous communities that transform transgender ideology into the new truth and establish sanctions for teachers and families who doubt or disagree with children’s and adolescents’ “self-diagnosis” and their “felt identities.” While other countries are already reversing course, in Spain the irreversible harm is increasing with hormonal treatments and surgeries on a growing number of minors, especially girls, who declare themselves transgender after being exposed to these ideas, and become dependent on the pharmaceutical industry.

In 2023, Carrasco was scheduled to speak at the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) annual joint conference on a panel titled “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Why biological sex remains a necessary analytic category in anthropology.” Planned panelists were:

Below is an excerpt from their description of the panel:

While it has become increasingly common in anthropology and public life to substitute ‘sex’ with ‘gender’, there are multiple domains of research in which biological sex remains irreplaceably relevant to anthropological analysis. Contesting the transition from sex to gender in anthropological scholarship deserves much more critical consideration than it has hitherto received in major diciplinary fora like AAA / CASCA. This diverse international panel brings together scholars from socio-cultural anthropology, archaeology, and biological anthropology who describe why in their work gender is not helpful and only sex will do. This is particularly the case when the work is concerned with equity and the deep analysis of power, and which has as an aim the achievement of genuine inclusivity. With research foci from hominin evolution to contemporary artificial intelligence, from the anthropology of education to the debates within contemporary feminism about surrogacy, panelists make the case that while not all anthropologists need to talk about sex, baby, some absolutely do.

[…] Sex identification—whether an individual was male or female – using the skeleton is one of the most fundamental components in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology. Anthropologists have improved their ability to determine sex since their initial studies on skeletal remains, which depended on subjective assessment of skeletal robusticity to say whether someone was male or female. An understanding of physical differences in the pelvis related to childbirth, hormonal impacts on bones, and extensive comparative studies have provided anthropologists with an array of traits, such as those in the Phenice Method, to determine sex using just bones. The use of DNA to identify sex in skeletons by their 23rd chromosomes enables anthropologists to say whether infants are male or female for use in both criminal abuse cases and archaeological cases, such as in recognizing infanticide practices. Anthropologists’ ability to determine whether a skeleton is male or female is not dependent on time or culture; the same traits can be used to make a sex estimate in a forensic case in Canada, or to estimate sex in a Paleoindian dated around 11,500 years ago in Brazil. As anthropologists study more remains from more cultures and time periods, sex identification has improved, because sex differences are biologically determined. In forensics, however, anthropologists should be (and are) working on ways to ensure that skeletal finds are identified by both biological sex and their gender identity, which is essential due to the current rise in transitioning individuals and their overrepresentation as crime victims.

Following outcry, the panel was canceled by AAA and CASCA, who released a joint statement titled “No Place For Transphobia in Anthropology.”

In response, Heterodox Academy convened the panel on November 8, 2023.

Carrasco testified for the 2024 Lés Republicains report on transgender minors and spoke at the 2024 conference held by French anti-trans group Observatoire de la petite sirène.

References

Ellakuría, Iñaki (March 7, 2024). Silvia Carrasco: “La ideología trans ha tomado la universidad y amenaza la democracia.” El Mundo https://www.elmundo.es/cataluna/2024/03/07/65e8d4a4e85ecee70f8b4593.html

AAA and CASCA boards (September 28, 2023). No Place For Transphobia in Anthropology: Session pulled from Annual Meeting program. https://www.cas-sca.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/No_Place_For_Transphobia_in_Anthropology_EN_FR.pdf alt url https://americananthro.org/news/no-place-for-transphobia-in-anthropology-session-pulled-from-annual-meeting-program/

Quinn, Ryan (October 4, 2023). ‘Let’s Talk About Sex,’ or ‘Let’s Platform Transphobia’? Association Cancels a Panel. Inside Higher Ed https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/diversity-equity/2023/10/04/anthropological-assoc-cancels-lets-talk-about-sex

Urquhart, Evan (October 2, 2023). Anthropology Rejects Attempt to Inject Culture Warring into Major Conference. Assigned Media https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/anthropology-rejects-attempt-to-inject-culture-warring-into-major-conference

Anti-trans coverage

Heterodox Academy (November 8, 2023). [UNCANCELED] Let’s Talk About Sex Baby: Why Biological Sex Remains A Necessary Analytic Category in Anthropology. https://heterodoxacademy.org/events/uncanceled-lets-talk-about-sex-baby-why-biological-sex-remains-a-necessary-analytic-category-in-anthropology/

Krauss, Lawrence M. (October 11, 2023). The Sex of Skeletons: To suggest that a spirited discussion of the importance of sex and gender in archeology threatens “scientific integrity” is to misunderstand the nature of science. Quillette https://quillette.com/2023/10/11/scary-sexy-skeletons/

Young, Cathy (October 5, 2023). Toxic culture on the right or left is wrong. Newsday https://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/culture-wars-transphobia-lgbt-gender-transgender-anthropology-i0un1yec

Lukianoff, Greg; Eduardo, Angel (October 3, 2023). Canceling the anthropology talk doesn’t stop the talk. The Eternally Radical Idea https://eternallyradicalidea.com/p/canceling-the-anthropology-talk-doesnt

Patel, Vimal (September 30, 2023). Anthropology Conference Drops a Panel Defending Sex as Binary. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/30/us/anthropology-panel-sex-binary-gender-kathleen-lowery.html

Staff report (September 27, 2023). Anthropology groups cancel conference panel on why biological sex is “necessary” for research. Retraction Watch https://retractionwatch.com/2023/09/27/anthropology-groups-cancel-conference-panel-on-why-biological-sex-is-necessary-for-research/

Book

Carrasco Pons, Silvia; Hidalgo Urtiaga, Ana; Muñoz de Lacalle, Araceli; Pibernat Vila, Marina (2022). La coeducación secuestrada: Crítica feminista a la penetración de las ideas transgeneristas en la educación [Coeducation kidnapped: feminist critique of the penetration of transgender ideas in education]. Editorial Octaedro,  ISBN 978-8419506290

Media

EKAI Center (November 25, 2025). Una Atrocidad: Transactivismo en las Escuelas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOYaNesT1mk

El Común de los Sentidos (November 16, 2025). Feminista DESTROZA a Irene Montero: “Nadie Nace en un Cuerpo Equivocado” | La Estafa Trans Ep. 19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3BStVRSQ-Q

Nuria Coronado Sopeña with Silvia Carrasco, Nuria Coronado, Ana Merino, Norma Ortega, and “Marta” (October 17, 2025). “La secta transactivista en las aulas.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6-IE9SMOyw

Gender Lupa with Annette Pacey and Silvia Carrasco (March 24, 2025). Silvia Carrasco (Ep. #2). https://genderlupa.substack.com/p/silvia-carrasco-ep-2

Plataforma do Feminismo Radical de Galicia (PFRG) (November 20, 2023). Irrupción do transhumanismo nas aulas. Ana Hidalgo e Silvia Carrasco. Congreso PFRG 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNmidR2tuwM

DoFemCo (December 16, 2022). Silvia Carrasco en la jornada sobre la Ley Trans 16D. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfJZcc0b4Y

Feministas al Congreso (October 29, 2022). Los aspectos más relevantes de las Leyes Trans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOFdVh73N0E

The Mess We’re In with Graham Linehan, “Arty Morty,” Helen Staniland, Amparo Domingo, and Silvia Carrasco (June 30, 2021). 63: No pasarán! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91SMDqF5PFQ

Women’s Declaration International (November 16, 2020). The Bigger Picture – Silvia Carrasco, social anthropologist and feminist activist, Catalonia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEvKknmf7o4

Resources

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Romani Studies (romanistudies.eu)

Facebook (facebook.com)

ORCID (orcid.org)

YouTube (youtube.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)