2 Dems shift on trans issues following Trump win

Two House Democrats are changing their tune about transgender issues following President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive win Tuesday, calling out their party for not recognizing what most Americans want.

“The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-New York, told The New York Times 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,” said Suozzi, who narrowly won reelection Tuesday.

Similarly, Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, lamented that “Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” The New York Times reported 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.” 

Their comments come after Kamala Harris lost a landslide election in which she was reluctant to answer direct questions about transgender issues in interviews, The Hill reported. 

Trump’s campaign successfully seized upon the issue, which The Times credited with boosting Trump 2.7 percentage points in the race. 

Perhaps more significantly, both Moulton and Suozzi have a solid track record of supporting pro-LGBT legislation such as the Equality Act, which sought to make gender identity and sexual orientation federally protected classes, and the Transgender Bill of Rights, a Democrat-sponsored bill to allow athletes to play in sports according to their gender identity. 

A spokesperson for Moulton’s office tried to tone down Moulton’s statements, The Hill reported, saying they were part of wide-ranging conversation illustrating how Democrats “leaned too far into identity politics this cycle.” 

The National Review reported that NewsNation host Chris Cuomo blamed the Democrats’ loss on “wokeism run amok. 

“You are forcing new social norms on people in this country,” Cuomo said, before paraphrasing a conversation with the left: “‘No, I’m not, we’re just doing what’s fair. Trans people have rights too.’ Yes, but if it’s communicated as if you must be forced to accept and be indoctrinated with ideas that you do not share — is that fair? ‘That’s not what we were doing.’ That’s how they felt you were treating them about it. That’s the women in sports thing.”