Anti-LGBTQ+ right-wing activists are notorious for getting annoyed about almost anything, and the latest addition to the ever-growing list is the Gender Unicorn diagram. 

Don’t believe that they’ll get annoyed about anything? Buckle up: we’ve got receipts. 

In June, right-wingers hit out at a member of staff at Office for National Statisticsfor wearing a Pride flag badge, with one critic describing it as the “flag of transgender activism”.

The year before, right-wing news outlets were left “outraged” by a trans artwork, funded by London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, for London’s Trafalgar Square. 

A Christmas advert featuring Black actress Adjoa Andoh as Mrs. Claus, that saw her use they/them pronouns to refer to someone, also sparked the wrath of anti-LGBTQ+ figures, who called it out for being “woke”. 

Countless brands, big and small, from Target to Tesco to Tampax, have also faced boycott calls from the right-wing community. But the latest outrage among the group is the realisation of the Gender Unicorn.

What is the Gender Unicorn diagram? 

Simply put, the Gender Unicorn Diagram is a graphic that helps people understand the differences between gender identity, gender expression, sex, and attraction.

The graphic, created by Trans Student Educational Resources – a youth-led organisation dedicated to ensuring education is inclusive for all – shows a unicorn on the left-hand side with symbols on that are explained on the right-hand side. 

Gender identity, shown on the unicorn through a rainbow-filled thought bubble, is explained as female/woman/girl, male/man/boy, or other gender(s). The diagram also breaks down gender expression, sex assigned at birth, physical attraction, and emotional attraction into distinct categories.

Underneath the definitions of each are further explained. Gender expression/presentation is explained as: “The physical manifestation of one’s gender identity through clothing, hairstyle, voice, body shape, etc. Many transgender people seek to make their gender expression (how they look) match their gender identity (who they are), rather than their sex assigned at birth.” 

Why are so many right-wingers annoyed about it? 

A quick search of the term “Gender Unicorn” on social media platforms such as X bring up various videos from right-wingers hitting out at the graphic. 

One X user described the diagram as being used to introduced children to the “pseudoscientific concept of ‘gender identity’.”

Another commented of the graphic: “One person’s ‘innocuous teaching tool’ is many other people’s insidious grooming material.” 

Right-wingers annoyance towards the graphic mimics political moves. The US government has demanded almost every state in the US remove sex education materials referencing trans and non-binary people.

The move has promoted more than 16 US states take legal action against the US Department of Health and Human Services, accusing the health secretary of forcing states to “rewrite sexual-health curricula to erase entire categories of students”.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the Department for Education has come under fire due to its relationship, sex, and health education (RSHE) guidance urging schools and teachers not to teach trans identities “as fact”.