Democratic legislators from certain deep blue states have withheld their support for transgender athletes competing in sports with the gender they transitioned to just days after President-elect Donald Trump won his race campaigning on an anti-trans platform.
"The Democrats have 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 anybody, but I don't think biological boys should be playing in girls' sports."
"Democrats aren't saying that, and they should be," continued Suozzi.
"Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face," Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton told The New York Times on Thursday. "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, who ran for Governor of New York in 2022 before being defeated by Gov. Kathy Hochul, recently re-assumed the same seat he won in the House of Representatives in 2017 after it was left open by the removal of former Congressman George Santos.
Moulton was elected to represent Massachusetts 6th congressional district in 2015, and has been doing so ever since.
Both representatives have indicated support for safeguarding trans rights in the past. Suozzi backed the Equality Act, aiming to make gender identity and sexual orientation federally protected classes, after being first elected in 2017. Moulton co-sponsored the Transgender Bill of Rights in both 2022 and 2023, despite the fact that one of its protections included allowing athletes to participate on teams that matched their gender identity.
However, more recently, Moulton voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act introduced by Rep. Greg Steube. The act attempted to change Title IX definitions in order to recognize sex as "based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth."
The campaigns of both Moulton and Suozzi have been endorsed by LGBTQ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign, an organization opposing the effort to restrict transgender individuals from participating in the sports teams they best identify with.
"Our 2024 exit polls mirror what has been true election after election — anti-trans attacks did not drive electoral results," said the Human Rights Campaign's press secretary, Brandon Wolf, in a statement provided to The Hill. "When asked their most important issues in this election, just 4 percent — last on the list — identified opposing care for trans people and trans kids playing in sports as issues motivating them to vote."
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