On Wednesday, Miriam Ben-Shalom, the first lesbian to be reinstated to the U.S. Army after getting kicked out for her sexual orientation, spoke out against the “indoctrination of children by the trans community.” A vocal radical feminist, Ben-Shalom championed the cause of parents in Madison, Wisc., who are suing the local school district over the issue. She and her allies with the Hands Across the Aisle Coalition spoke at a press conference at the downtown Madison public library.

“It is time to put a stop to the sort of indoctrination of children by the trans community, Big Pharma, and Big Medicine,” Ben-Shalom declared at the press conference, streamed exclusively by Women’s Liberation Radio News. “As a teacher of 37 years, I wonder what goes on in the mind of a man who thinks that because he goes about in womanface [the feminist equivalent of blackface], that gives him the right to force his system of beliefs on young children. That isn’t what teachers are supposed to do, is it?”

The radical feminist was referring to Vica Steele, a male teacher who identifies as female and who used the same restroom as elementary school girls until parents complained. The teacher’s union is suing to force the school to violate the privacy rights of female students by forcing them to share the private space with a grown man.

Ben-Shalom explained that she jointly founded Hands Across the Aisle Coalition with Kaeley Triller Harms, a conservative Christian, in order to push back against the transgender assaults on basic science and women’s rights.

“We are especially concerned about the casual and cavalier way the human rights of women and girls are being set aside because of their biological sex, which is not the same thing as gender,” Ben-Shalom explained. “We are not here today to say that transgender people should face discrimination. We are not here to say they ought not to exist. We are not here to say they ought not to have the same rights as all other citizens, nor will we say that males who identify as trans are all criminals. That simply isn’t true.”

“This is about male entitlement and power being used to subjugate women and girls and deny them any human rights or place at all in the society. Men do this without any sort of consent — our consent,” the veteran added.

“We are here to ask why the privacy of elementary school girls means nothing when a male who identifies as trans decides that walking down the hallway is simply too much,” Ben-Shalom said. “We are asking… if it is appropriate for an adult intact male, no matter his presentation, to be in an elementary girls’ bathroom when there are other places nearby for him to use.”

“Giving him that right does open the door for other males to claim they are women and claim access to that restroom.

How many girls will have to be violated? When is enough enough?”

“This is about [trans activists] saying that gender is more important than biological sex, that a man’s demands are more important than a young female’s right to privacy,” she explained.

Ben-Shalom noted that many transgender advocates claim that men who masquerade as “transgender women” in order to prey upon vulnerable women in restrooms and changing rooms are not “really” transgender.

“How can one tell who’s a real transgender? It defies logic because it’s self-identified,” she said, brushing aside this objection.

Ben-Shalom noted a recent lawsuit filed by the conservative law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), representing 14 unnamed parents with children in Madison schools. The lawsuit focuses on a district guidance document promoting transgender identity and directing school staff not to “disclose any information that may reveal a student’s gender identity to others, including parents or guardians” unless it is legally required or the student wishes to reveal himself or herself.

The lawsuit claims the document requires staff to “actively deceive” parents about their children’s gender identities and alleges that the guide violates parental and religious freedom rights guaranteed under the Wisconsin Constitution.

“It is Hands Across the Aisle position that parents should not have to have their rights abrogated by school personnel, that schools should not be pressured to force girls or boys to share bathrooms and locker rooms with members of the opposite sex, much less with an adult,” Ben-Shalom declared. “Hands Across the Aisle asks for a return to education, not activism based on false science, female erasure, and the willful violations of student privacy and the denial of parental rights.”

Sadly, the press conference was sparsely attended. Yet Ben-Shalom’s powerful rebukes to transgender activism cannot be ignored.

Downtown Madison public library. Press conference called by Hands Across the Aisle Women in Coalition to discuss transgender culture and guidelines in the Madison Public Schools. Speakers include Miriam Ben-Shalom, Mary Jo Walters, Emily Olivet and Thistle Pettersen.#MadisonPublicLibrary #WLRN #MiriamBenShalom #MaryJoWalters #EmilyOlivet #ThistlePettersen Posted by Women's Liberation Radio News on Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.