Raised amid domestic violence in post-Soviet Estonia, I watched my mother break free from an abusive relationship and raise us alone. Decades later, I discover she supports Estonia’s far-right party. I follow her to one of their propaganda events and learn they are part of an international ultra-conservative network pushing a return to the so-called Natural Order—medieval laws discriminating against women and minorities under the slogan “traditional family values.” That sends me on a global quest, where experts, journalists, and former insiders of this anti-gender movement describe a horrific portrait of its impact on democracy as we know it. 

Since 2010, alliances linking the U.S. Christian right, Russian oligarchs, and European legal think tanks have funnelled hundreds of millions of euros to organize referendums, infiltrate institutions like the EU and the United Nations, and support far-right groups to push through laws all to maintain the white straight male supremacy,