Two House Democrats change their tune on transgender athletes days after Trump win

As Democrats struggle to come to terms with Kamala Harris’s resounding defeat to Donald Trump in this week’s presidential election, two Democratic congressmen have come out against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

New York Rep Tom Suozzi and Massachusetts Rep Seth Moulton, both of whom have supported transgender rights in Congress in the past, expressed frustration at their party’s unwillingness to address an issue that was central to the Trump campaign’s messaging, particularly in its TV advertising.

Speaking to The New York Times on Wednesday, Suozzi said: “The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left.

“I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports.

“Democrats aren’t saying that, and they should be.”

Moulton then spoke to the Times on Thursday and said: “Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face.

“I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

Suozzi served in Congress from 2017 to 2023, before stepping down to run in the New York gubernatorial race and then returning to the House earlier this year by winning George Santos’s old House seat.

He has previously backed the Equality Act, recognizing gender identity and sexual orientation as federally protected classes, as well as a resolution put forward by the human rights organization GLSEN drawing attention to the bullying and harassment LGBT+ students commonly experience in schools.

Moulton entered Congress in 2015 and twice co-sponsored House Democrats’ Transgender Bill of Rights, in 2022 and again in 2023, which would have guaranteed trans athletes the right to participate in sports teams matching their gender identity.

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He also voted against Florida Republican Greg Staube’s Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act last year, which sought to recognize sex as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”

Both Suozzi and Moulton won re-election on Tuesday in campaigns that were backed by the nation’s largest LGBT+ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign.

Speaking on Friday, Moulton told The Independent: “I stand firmly in my belief for the need for competitive women's sports to put limits on the participation of those with the unfair physical advantages that come with being born male.

“I am also a strong supporter of the civil rights of all Americans, including transgender rights. I will fight, as I always have, for the rights and safety of all citizens. These two ideas are not mutually exclusive, and we can even disagree on them.

“Yet there are many who, shouting from the extreme left corners of social media, believe I have failed the unspoken Democratic Party purity test. We did not lose the 2024 election because of any trans person or issue. We lost, in part, because we shame and belittle too many opinions held by too many voters and that needs to stop.

“Let’s have these debates now, determine a new strategy for our party since our existing one failed, and then unite to oppose the Trump agenda wherever it imperils American values.”

The Independent also contacted Suozzi for further comment.

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Republicans spent an estimated $21.4 million in the first half of October alone on TV spots attacking Democratic support for transgender healthcare, according to AdImpact, many of which appeared during broadcasts of football games and one of which closed with a statement mocking “woke” sensitivity to pronouns: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

Although 54 percent of people surveyed by Data for Progress found the ads “mean-spirited and out of hand” and 80 percent believed the two campaigns should “spend less time talking about transgender issues and more time talking about voters’ priority issues like the economy and inflation,” the Trump operation kept it up.

The winning candidate himself vowed during his rally speeches to ban transgender athletes from sporting competitions and made a series of false claims on the issue, including repeatedly declaring that students were being offered or even coerced into undergoing gender transition surgery in schools.

Since Trump’s return to the White House as America’s 47th president was confirmed in the early hours of Wednesday morning, LGBT+ crisis hotlines have reported being inundated with phone calls from young people distressed by the outcome and Trump supporter Elon Musk’s own estranged trans daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, has said she does not “see a future” for herself in the US anymore.

Democrats are currently preoccupied with establishing precisely why Harris lost, with many fixated on blaming Joe Biden for ever attempting to run for a second term, rather than bowing out after one as a “transitional” leader, as he had initially promised.

Veteran strategist David Axelrod concluded his party has lost touch with its working class base and become the party of the college-educated only while exit polls on Tuesday night suggested Democrats had focused too strongly on secondary issues and media talking points when, in fact, voters were far more concerned with the economy, principally bringing down inflation and reducing the cost of living.