Claiming a violation of their free speech rights, a group of Democrats is suing the state of Illinois for the right to call themselves Democrats while being transphobic.

Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender (DIAG) is a nonprofit group of current and former Democrats who think that the party is wrong to support transgender rights. The group coalesced online during the COVID pandemic as a social network of liberal parents whose children had come out as trans.

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DIAG promotes its members as “Liberals guiding our party back to reason and reality” under the banner, “Biology, not ideology,” a mantra similarly embraced by the Trump administration in its crusade against trans people.

DIAG’s staff includes a “GenZ detransitioner” and “a lifelong progressive Democrat/agnostic feminist,” among others listed on its website, and says it supports the LGB community only. The group opposes “efforts to ‘fix’ gay and gender nonconforming youth through gender-medicine interventions” and rejects “clinicians who profit by pathologizing typical adolescent discomfort.”

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Over two years, the group became a nationally registered nonprofit and has solicited donations in 37 states.

Now, an obscure law in Illinois is being used to challenge DIAG’s ability to fundraise and promote their views in the state by denying them use of the word “Democrat” in their name.

In December, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias (D) rejected DIAG’s application to incorporate as a nonprofit in Illinois, citing an Illinois law known as the Party Name Provision, which prohibits nonprofits from using names that include words associated with established political parties unless the party consents. 

DIAG is suing the state over the denial, claiming that enforcing the law prevents the group from exercising its First Amendment rights. 

FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonpartisan civil liberties group, is representing DIAG in the case, Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender v. Alexi Giannoulias.

“The all-volunteer organization believes it offers a unique voice by explaining that the current Democratic consensus contradicts ‘core liberal values‘ that the party espouses, like protecting women and supporting the scientific process. To advance its mission and political goals, DIAG wants to solicit charitable contributions in Illinois. The Supreme Court has placed charitable solicitation ‘in a category of speech close to the heart of the First Amendment,'” FIRE said in a statement detailing the suit.

DIAG board secretary Jenny Poyer Ackerman asserted the group’s work is rooted in fundamental Democratic values.  

“The surprising thing is that the Democratic Party has come to such different conclusions because we feel that our work reflects the core liberal values,” Ackerman told the National Review. “Critical thinking, freedom from religion, women’s rights, and a hesitancy to lavish the pharmaceutical industry with our money and our trust. So it really feels like we’re not doing anything inconsistent with the principles of our party.”

DIAG applied to incorporate three times in 2025, but the secretary of state’s office rejected all of the applications, according to the suit. In all three, DIAG chose not to seek the Democratic State Central Committee’s permission, claiming the requirement amounts to an unlawful prior restraint on speech.

“The Democratic and Republican parties don’t have a monopoly on the concepts of what is democratic or republican,” FIRE attorney Daniel Zahn told the Chicago Tribune. “When the government tries to give them that monopoly, it’s absurd and unconstitutional.”

“Illinois can’t get around the First Amendment by outsourcing censorship to party bosses,” he added. “No American — Republican, Democrat, or independent — should have to bend the knee before a political party to participate in the political system.”

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