The right to body autonomy and being free from oppressive gender stereotypes is an issue that's near and dear to my heart. I've noticed that the same hubris people who stand in the way of trans people are generally the same people who are standing in the way of the right to safe and legal abortion services for many of the same reasons. The Pacific Justice Institute, the very organization that hounded a trans kid to the brink of suicide, is also an anti-abortion group. The Salt & Light Council, the very organization that went on the news to falsely claim that trans children were scurrying up and over bathroom stalls so they could watch cis people use the restroom, is also an anti-abortion group. Alliance Defending Freedom, (remember this org; we'll come back to them in a moment) the same organization that went to Fox News with lies about what happened at Evergreen College, is also an anti-abortion group. Consider the gender stereotypes these folks appeal to as they take an anti-trans/anti-choice stance:

In their anti-trans/anti-choice world, learning to be a good homemaker who pumps out as many kids as the males in her life wish is gender. People like me fuck with that worldview. I've also noticed they believe that they – not you – get to contextualize your life experience. They're happy to yell at me, "No matter what you do, you'll always be a man!" while shouting at clinic patients, "No matter what you do, you'll still be a mother; you'll just be a mother to a dead baby!" Blind to their own hubris, they will smugly privilege themselves to define your experience for you.

I, therefore, spend my Saturdays defending clinic patients as they attempt to access an abortion clinic because a person's right to hold agency over their body (and not the other way around) is also a trans issue. I do what I do because the enemies of choice are the enemies of my freedom. I'm a Clinic Escort, or as the people who try to mob, intimidate and shame people entering the clinic call us, "Clinic Deathscorts." (BTW, "Deathscort" would make an awesome metal band name!) I generally stand at the front gate and try to keep the anti-trans/anti-choice crew from mobbing cars as they enter the clinic.

I was happy to learn that the president of a state NOW chapter will be doing a TransAdvocate interview, echoing these sentiments. Additionally, I was happy to see Planned Parenthood and NARAL give voice to these intersections of oppression as well:

An anti-trans/anti-abortion piece written by the Catholic News Agency is making its rounds on right-wing outlets. The report warns "of a global push for 'gender identity' language:"

Attorneys working for human rights at the United Nations and other global organizations note a growing trend to introduce "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" language – as well as abortion rights – into international law. A "newer theme that we see in international law is what we call the SOGI movement, or the Sexual Orientation Gender Identity movement," British attorney Paul Coleman told CNA on March 23. "It's been around for the last decade and it is seeking to promote the terms 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' on an international level; seeking to provide protections, seeking to change international laws to include those terms and having a series of knock-on effects in a number of different areas." Coleman, who specializes in international litigation with a focus on European law, does legal advocacy in international institutions of governance like the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Union.

The report interviews Paul Coleman, an attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom – they very group I previously noted went to Fox News peddling the false claim that a trans woman was repeatedly exposing herself to 6-year-old girls. Just before explaining what "gender identity" refers to, Coleman makes the same claim TERFs do: "gender identity" is a term that isn't understood.

"The terms 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' are terms that aren't particularly well understood," explained the attorney, who serves as legal counsel in the Vienna office of the international organization Alliance Defending Freedom. "That's part of the issue with this sort of terminology – that its so fluid, that it changes – it can mean whatever people want it to mean." As a result, the language becomes a kind of tool for incorporating certain beliefs into law. "In effect, 'sexual orientation' is a 'code word,' so to speak, for homosexuality and homosexual behavior, and 'gender identity' is a 'code' for transsexualism or people who feel they are not male or female, but are something different, something in between, or nothing at all," Coleman said.

The Alliance Defending Freedom makes it clear that trans issues are part of the "hom