Desperate for answers about what went wrong on Election Day, finger-pointing was quick among Democrats and media pundits. Many – privately – hold President Joe Biden responsible. Others blame the operatives who have run the party’s last few campaigns. But some point to an issue with far less power in American politics: transgender rights.
“Democrats need to stop pandering to the far left,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., told The New York Times on Wednesday. “I don’t want to discriminate against anyone, but I don’t think biological boys should play in girls’ sports.”
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., shared a similar view, telling the Times on Thursday: “Democrats spend far 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 to be run over on a playing field by a male or former male athlete, but as a Democrat I should be afraid to say that.”
Representatives for Suozzi and Moulton did not immediately return a request for comment.
In Texas, where the battle for transgender rights has become particularly fierce in recent years, then-Chairman of the Texas Democratic Party Gilberto Hinojosa told a local radio station that “you can support transgender rights in all categories where the issue comes up , or You can understand that there are certain things that we simply go too far, that a large part of our population does not support.”
Hinojosa apologized to X on Wednesday, saying he “failed to convey my thoughts carefully and clearly” before resigning Friday over the Democratic losses.
Brad Pritchett, the interim director of LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas, condemned Hinojosa’s comments and some Democrats’ broader argument that transgender people contributed to Democratic losses.
“This is something that Democrats need to stop and remember what their values are,” Pritchett said in an interview with NBC News. “We live and campaign according to the values we hold dear.”
He also said Democrats should not “alienate” some of their most loyal supporters. Eighty-six percent of LGBTQ voters said they supported Vice President Kamala Harris, compared to 12% who said they supported Donald Trump, according to NBC News exit polls of ten key states.
Between the 2020 and 2024 elections, transgender rights have become a political flashpoint in the country’s culture wars.
Thousands of anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country, many of which specifically targeted transgender Americans, according to figures from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Corporate America has also been drawn into the fray, with American brands like Bud Light facing a huge backlash for their partnerships with trans influencers. And perhaps nothing has sparked more conversations than the issue of transgender girls and women competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
In 2022, a string of victories by transgender athlete Lia Thomas as a member of the University of Pennsylvania women’s swimming team sparked global headlines and conservative outrage. Thomas’ victory at the NCAA swimming championships caused particular outrage. Last summer, conspiracy theories that Algeria’s Olympic boxer Imane Khelif was not born a woman exploded online, drawing atypical attention to the women’s sport at the Paris Games.
During the campaign, Republicans spent more than $200 million on network television ads on transgender issues this year, according to data shared with NBC News by AdImpact, an analytics firm that tracks political ad spending.
Advertisements citing Harris’ past support for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming healthcare treatments aired repeatedly during NFL and college football games last month. The ads ended with the tagline: “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.”
Harris largely avoided the issue on the trail and in interviews, and it was notably absent from this year’s Democratic National Convention.
Asked whether she believed transgender Americans in this country should have access to gender-affirming care, Harris told NBC News’ Hallie Jackson: “That’s a decision that doctors will make in terms of what is medically necessary.” Pressed further, she said: “I believe that all people should be treated with dignity and respect, period, and not be vilified for who they are, and not be bullied for who they are.”
The Harris campaign’s LGBTQ engagement director, Sam Alleman, urged voters not to blame transgender people for Harris’ loss.
“Please don’t blame transgender or transgender people for why we lost,” he wrote Thursday on X. “No exit poll or data shows that this is a major decision point for voters.”
The issue voters most often cited as their top concern was “the state of democracy,” followed closely by the economy, according to NBC News exit polls.
Brianna Wu, a prominent Democratic transgender activist, told NBC News in an interview that the debate over trans rights has “changed radically” in recent years.
Wu ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Democrat in 2018 and 2020 and now hosts a podcast about trans perspectives called “Dollcast.”
“It’s evolved from a message that says, ‘This is my body, this is how I feel most comfortable. Please let me do this and move on with my life, ‘to being able to identify myself in women’s locker rooms and women having to deal with seeing penises fully intact in front of them,’ Wu said.
Wu believes trans people must make compromises on what the broader public is willing to accept regarding trans issues.
“A lot of gay men wore khaki pants and went on daytime TV to say that love is love,” she said. “And yes, it is a bit embarrassing, but you do what you have to do to talk to normal people.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
