As gender identity ordinances and bathroom battles sweep the nation, ordinary Americans have had to confront the question of whether their long-standing beliefs about the sexes are based on biology or bigotry.

While the debate has polarized many, it has also served to unite exceptionally unlikely allies. In something of an historical first, self-professed radical feminists and conservative women are tabling their ideological differences and standing in solidarity against gender identity legislation, which they have come to recognize as threatening the civil rights of women. The Hands Across the Aisle Coalition is a bi-partisan group of women who have committed to working together and leveraging their collective resources and platforms to oppose aspects of the transgender movement.

Join us as five of the coalition’s leaders offer a perspective the mainstream media too often ignores on this very important issue. 

Miriam Ben Shalom is an educator and activist who made history for being the first person to be reinstated to the military after being discharged from service for being openly lesbian. 

Kaeley Triller Haver is a rape survivor whose personal experience inspired her political activism on women’s privacy and safety. She serves as the Communications Director for the Just Want Privacy Campaign in Washington State. 

Kami Mueller is the CEO of the Mueller Group, a communications firm in North Carolina. She played an integral role in the communications efforts defending the state’s controversial privacy law (HB2).

Mary Lou Singleton is a midwife and a feminist who is an active member of the Women’s Liberation Front (WOLF), the radical feminist organization that filed a lawsuit against the Obama Administration to restore Title IX rights to women and girls. 

Emily Zinos is a stay at home mom who works with the Minnesota chapter of the “Ask Me First” campaign, a project sponsored by the Family Policy Alliance to defend the safety and privacy of women and children.