We are living inside a contradiction. Women’s and gender-expansive people’s bodies have always been legislated, surveilled, and criminalized; there is no denying that. Now more than ever, however, we are seeing a reversal of rights and protections that are a matter of life and death. From abortion rights dismantled, immigration enforcement weaponized against reproductive autonomy, obstacles or complete eradication of gender affirming care (life-saving care), we are seeing the very concept of bodily sovereignty treated as a political bargaining chip.
At the same time, the language of “women’s rights” (a term we focus on and use, which very intentionally erases our trans and non-binary community members) is being strategically deployed and brazenly weaponized by governments, specifically the United States, to justify military aggression, most visibly in this moment in the narratives around our attack on Iran, even as those same governments ( again, it’s us, the call is coming from inside the house), strip rights from women and gender expansive people at home.
