On Wednesday, writing for MSNBC, columnist Katelyn Burns argued that Texas Republicans' back-to-back passage of the harshest anti-abortion law in the country and a new bill limiting transgender students' participation in high school athletics isn't a coincidence.
Indeed, argued Burns, the point is to turn these allied progressive groups against one another and weaken their ability to organize.
"The proximity of these two bills is more meaningful than one might think: Conservatives have been hard at work over the last few years trying to divide the natural solidarity that should exist between feminists and trans people. In introducing bills that disempower both populations, they're making crucial headway toward that goal," wrote Burns. "The implications for trans people and women couldn't be more terrifying. In multiple states, GOP legislators have pushed heavy-handed abortion bans alongside bills to prevent trans people from changing their gender on their birth certificates. Conservatives have signaled that birth control may be their next target, which affects both cisgender women and trans people."
As Burns noted, there have been pushes to demonize the public accommodation of transgender people as a threat to cisgender women and children in both the United States and England. The activists spearheading the push are usually described as "radical feminists," although as some commentators have noted, they often push deeply anti-feminist ideas.
It is imperative, argued Burns, that transgender and feminist activists see through the ruse.
"Instead of bickering among one another over things like gender-inclusive reproductive health language, it's worth women and trans people looking at the bigger picture and taking note of the world conservatives are striving to create," wrote Burns. "It's a future in which personal liberty is a facade and cis women and trans people have no right to make the most personal decisions about their own bodies ... It's up to women and trans people to work together to ensure it doesn't come to fruition."
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