Two U.S. House Democrats have made public statements opposing transgender female athletes playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams. During the election, Republicans spent at least $215 million on anti-trans attack ads, including accusing Democrats of supporting “boys competing against girls,” a crude reference to the issue.

“The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) said according to The New York Times. “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.”

Related

How did the trans sports debate become such a hot topic this election season?
Nonbinary ESPN journalist Katie Barnes discusses what the trans sports debate reveals about gender bias in the U.S..

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) told the same publication, “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.”

Your LGBTQ+ guide to Election 2024

Stay ahead of the 2024 Election with our newsletter that covers candidates, issues, and perspectives that matter.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

Moulton and Suozzi, who both won their re-election campaigns on Tuesday, were endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the national LGBTQ+ advocacy group that supports trans-inclusion in sports. Both men have supported legislation to protect trans rights, including the Equality Act — a federal law that would ban anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination — and have opposed anti-trans legislation.

Moulton is also a member of the Congressional Equality Caucus which supports LGBTQ+ equality and cosponsored House Democrats’ Transgender Bill of Rights, which would enshrine trans rights, including the right for trans athletes to play on sports teams matching one’s gender identity.

In a statement given to The Hill about the legislator’s comments, HRC Press Secretary Brandon Wolf, said, “We will spend years analyzing the results of this election and building a winning coalition for the cycles to come, but we know this: blaming those who have long been in the MAGA crosshairs won’t help us build the path forward.”

Wolf noted that, in exit polling, only 4% of voters said that they considered trans issues as the most important in the election.

Moulton and Suozzi are just the latest Democratic politicians to speak out against trans athletes amid the election. In mid-October, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) released an ad in which he said, “I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports.”

In doing so, Allred became the first national Democratic candidate ever to release a TV ad responding to Republican transphobic attacks.

His Republican opponent for the U.S. Senate, anti-LGBTQ+ Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), attacked Allred for supporting the Equality Act and opposing a national Republican ban on trans athletes in sports. Allred, who lost his Senate race, wasn’t the only Democratic candidate to lose his race after facing such ads.

In Ohio, a Senate Republican super PAC aired ads accusing Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) of “allowing transgender biological males in girls’ sports.” In Montana, Republicans aired five ads accusing Sen. Jon Tester (D-NV) of wanting trans women in sports and bathrooms, painting him as too liberal for the state. Brown and Tester both narrowly lost their races.

After President-elect Donald Trump’s Election Night victory, some Democratic politicians and pundits have “blamed progressives for dragging the party too far to the left,” The Hill reported. Some have voiced concerns that Democratic pandering to progressive identity groups have opened politicians to criticism of being out of touch with voters’ actual concerns.

“Donald Trump has no greater friend than the far left, which has managed to alienate historic numbers of Latinos, Blacks, Asians, and Jews from the Democratic Party with absurdities like ‘Defund the Police’ or ‘From the River to the Sea’ or ‘Latinx,’” Out gay Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) tweeted.

Republicans in 26 states have passed laws forbidding trans athletes from playing on sports teams matching their gender identities. Majorities of Americans oppose trans participation in sports, and the sides of that debate don’t break down cleanly along ideological lines, nonbinary ESPN journalist Katie Barnes told LGBTQ Nation.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.