I think that’s what the author wants to challenge; with gender withering away, then trans people will simply cease to exist - not as people of course, people will still be born with consciousness (sapience? I’m not sure how you call it in english), but their gender will cease to exist, and what will they be? The author’s theory is that being trans is not only important to them, but precedes patriarchy and thus gender abolition will not fix oppression - gender is not the product of oppression and can exist without it.
I do agree, personally, that it’s a very far off event, but I have also changed my mind on whether it’s “important” to talk about now. By which I mean, I used to think that because it was so far off, then it wasn’t really urgent to worry over it - it will happen long after I’m dead, there’s nothing to it now. But I have since changed my mind after I saw for myself gender abolitionists who are ultimately transphobic, and they didn’t come to this conclusion by accident. Can we say that they are only using gender abolition to confirm their transphobic views? Maybe, but it’s still important to talk about and understand gender, because trans people (and non-binary people) exist right now.
I don’t mean to put words in anyone’s mouth but my understanding through experience is that gender abolitionists promote the withering away view - I take this from the various vetting tickets I handle on marxist spaces such as this one or discords. They’re not quite out there actively trying to abolish gender, but see it as something that will cease to exist eventually, in one way or another.
So in that way (again not saying every gender abolitionist/withering away is transphobic!) I have come to understand that gender abolitionism and the view that gender will wither away (whether it actually will is another question) are one and the same. Some people might put more urgency on it than others. Like I said in possibly another comment a lot of it seems to come from seeming like a common sense conclusion.
I don’t remember meeting strict ‘withering away’ theorists so I can’t speak as to what they think if they exist!