But we just focus on emotional trigger point issues. See focus on and mass protests because of police brutality (hundreds of deaths a year) compared to zero widespread action on the injustice of the prison system (hundreds of thousands of lives ruined, literal slavery and imprisonment in cages over antiquated unequally applied drug laws).
All that said, in light of the previous example, it makes the abortion fight seem particularly...whimsical...given the stakes. The evangelicals believe they themselves are going to heaven regardless of what the non-evangelicals do and those getting abortions don't care so it's rather hard to point to a group being oppressed by their beliefs here.
It is harder to get a clear consensus on how to handle crime and imprisonment in general. It's a problem without a single good solution.
Whereas the solution to police brutality incidents like George Floyd should be pretty simple in comparison.
That's not a good argument for the left to stop defending trans people's rights.
Distraction working as intended then? Neither political party has really shown any clear legislative intention on delivering on those things you ask for.
That said, it's a nuanced issue that touches a lot of aspects of life and effects more people than one would initially assume. It's very much worth sorting out, but it's the kind of issue that's easily going to be derailed by toxic personalities because much like guns and religion, it's an attack on one's self image. If you're a billionaire wanting to cause havoc to prevent wealth taxes or environmental regulation, throwing money at either side of this cause seems like a pretty good way to get high political-chaos ROI.
[1] - https://xkcd.com/1095/