It is not often you see feminists and Christian conservatives joining forces, but America’s first statewide referendum on transgender “bathroom laws” in Massachusetts has united them.

Elements from both groups are opposed to the idea that someone who is biologically male but identifies as a woman has the right to use women’s lavatories or changing rooms.

“These are people who you would not normally expect to come together,” said Kaeley Triller, a member of the Hands Across the Aisle coalition, a group of women who emphasise “biology, not bigotry”. They have campaigned against laws that allow transgender people to use the facilities of the gender they identify with.

“This is often positioned as a right-wing v left-wing issue, but it isn’t,” Triller added. “Right-wing Christian