Should Democrats Moderate on Transgender and LGBTQ Issues?
a Boston Review Forum essay and accompanying video
As some of you may recall, in the wake of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, several prominent centrist Democratic politicians and pundits tried to blame Kamala Harris’s loss on transgender people, despite the lack of any credible evidence. That lead me to pen this piece at the time, which rebutted those claims and explained why throwing trans people under the bus would be bad politics for Democrats.
Of course, there have been many new developments in this story since November 2024. So I was excited when Boston Review reached out to me last month and invited me to participate in one of their forums on this very topic. And that forum has just been published!
The lead article is How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism (moderation used to help Democrats win, but its advantages now have been greatly exaggerated), by Adam Bonica and Jake Grumbach. I found their arguments quite compelling.
I was asked to respond more specifically to calls for Democrats to moderate on transgender rights and LGBTQ issues. It’s a short essay entitled Trans rights aren’t tanking the Democrats—you can read it at that link. There are 14 other forum responses, including from people like Cori Bush, Amanda Litman, and G. Elliott Morris, so I encourage you to check out the entire forum!
Given that my essay provides a concise yet comprehensive overview of this recurring issue, I have turned it into a video essay as well, which you can watch here:
If you appreciate the piece, please “like” and share the essay & video with other people! And if you want me to turn more of my essays into videos, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel and supporting my work on Patreon!