What do four women — one a rape survivor, one a lesbian, one a radical feminist, and one a conservative — have in common besides all being females? The answer was evident at a forum hosted by the Heritage Foundation, where members of the Hands Across the Aisle Coalition gathered in support of battling a common enemy: the transgender movement. The women highlighted the dangers posed by laws and policies designed to further the ideals of “gender identity” over and against that of biological sex.

The two biggest issues of concern were safety and the loss of a truly feminine identity. Regarding the issue of safety for biological females, Kaeley Triller, herself a survivor of sexual abuse, stated, “Every single time that I would run one of these screenings, I would find somebody who’d infiltrated the system, because that’s what predators do — they prey, and they seek opportunity. And I recognized that this new [transgendered bathroom] policy that they are asking us to embrace and adopt was basically the equivalent of rolling out a welcome mat for any man who decided that he wanted to come in and access our spaces.”

Miriam Ben-Shalom, a homosexual rights activist and lesbian, observed, “It is about bathrooms, locker rooms, women’s shelters, women’s jails, and women’s spaces, and the real issue her is male violence. That’s what it is, and that’s what we’re talking about here.”

There was also genuine concern over the impact these transgender policies are having on children. Feminist activists Mary Lou Singleton stated, “We have federal laws in this country that [say] you can’t use Medicaid and Medicare funds to sterilize someone until someone is over 21. We’re sterilizing 11-year-olds because they want to shop in the wrong aisle at Toys ‘R’ Us. This is insanity.”

What this proves is when something so obvious and foundational as the biological sex identity of female is at stake, some extremely politically diverse groups can come together in common cause. This is a good thing.