Politics
LGBTQ candidates running in key races up and down the ballot
Out lawmakers could tip the balance of power in state legislatures and more
The LGBTQ Victory Fund is supporting “a ton of amazing LGBTQ candidates who’ve stepped forward” this election cycle, the organization’s vice president of political programs, Sean Meloy, told the Washington Blade during an interview last week.
Among the “amazing, historic candidates running for office at all levels,” he said, are national officeholders like U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and U.S. House candidates Will Rollins (D-Calif.) and Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), along with those running for state and local positions across the country.
Meloy hails from and currently resides in the “swingiest swing state” of 2024, Pennsylvania. He said, “I’ve never seen the kind of LGBTQ organizing at the level it currently is,” thanks in part to Victory’s coordinated efforts with Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign.
The Keystone State is critical for the presidential race and also home to key contests that could decide control of the House and Senate.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania is running against mega-millionaire hedge fund executive David McCormick in one of the four Senate races of 2024 that Cook Political Report considers a toss-up, a distinction he shares with two incumbent House Democrats and one incumbent House Republican from the state.
The LGBTQ vote is key, which helps to explain the focus on organizing within the LGBTQ coalition, but Meloy stressed that exciting candidates like gay Pennsylvania State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta can boost the performance of others closer to and at the top of the ticket this year.
Kenyatta, who last year was named by President Joe Biden to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans, is “running an amazing campaign,” Meloy said, for auditor general.
He promises to “help bring his voice as a champion for normal folks to government, to make sure our tax dollars are used effectively and efficiently,” Meloy said, adding that “electing a young gay Black man, I think, goes a real long way.”
Folks who have heard him speak will recognize that Kenyatta “is fighting for them,” that he “actually looks like the people that [he’s] meant to represent,” bringing “multiple different historic firsts” to his campaign, Meloy said.
Broadly, “The LGBTQ vote and LGBTQ candidates are going to decide exactly what the makeup of our government looks like, whether it is a pro-equality government that includes LGBTQ people at the table, or one that is vehemently anti-LGBTQ and continues to demonize and attack our community,” he said.
Speaking of attacks against the community, former President Donald Trump and Republican candidates have spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-trans attack ads. Meloy is doubtful they will succeed, but noted the “polling is all over the place” so it is difficult to tell whether the messaging has harmed candidates supported by Victory.
“They’re doubling down on trying to cash in on bigotry, and we just have to make sure that that doesn’t work,” he said.
The battleground states
Along with Baldwin, Meloy said Victory is investing in key down-ticket candidates in Wisconsin, with a staffer on the ground in the battleground state working to elect LGBTQ leaders — like Ryan Spaude, running for Wisconsin State Assembly, and Kristin Alfheim, running for Wisconsin State Senate — who “are going to make or break whether or not Democrats lift that state legislative chamber.”
“They’re very much on the tip of the spear there, and that girds and is also supporting Tammy Baldwin for her reelection,” he said, adding that with help from their elections, the state could “potentially follow other Midwestern legislative chambers like Minnesota and Michigan, to pass pro-LGBTQ legislation.”
“That’s the change that we saw happen in Michigan,” another swing state, “that led to a record amount of LGBTQ folks getting elected, and then passing pro-LGBTQ legislation,” Meloy explained. “Similar things happened in the Pennsylvania State House, fair districts were passed, we doubled the amount of LGBTQ people, and then a record amount of pro-choice, and pro-LGBTQ legislation was passed.”
In Michigan, he said, LGBTQ candidates like Kyle Wright will help Democrats keep their House majority.
Meloy also pointed to the swing state of North Carolina, where even if far-right gubernatorial hopeful Mark Robinson is defeated, LGBTQ candidates like Lisa Grafstein, the state Senate’s lone LGBTQ voice, will help to guard against a GOP supermajority that would “pass absolutely crazy anti-LGBTQ legislation.”
Out west in the swing state of Nevada, Democrats are poised to pick up a couple of seats in both chambers of the legislature, which would give them control of the state Assembly and the state Senate, a check against Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.
“We’ve got Ryan Hampton running to pick up a seat” in the assembly, Meloy said, along with Dallas Harris, who is running for the state Senate.
And across the border in Arizona, another swing state, Lorena Austin is “running there to help keep a seat,” he said.
Elsewhere, opportunities to make history
In deep-red Iowa, Meloy said, “Aime Wichtendahl is running for the state House, and she’d be the first trans voice ever elected to that state legislature.”
“Similarly, in Florida,” he said, “we could have a record amount of LGBTQ legislators impacting the balance of power in Tallahassee, which is extremely important when you have such an anti-LGBTQ governor,” Ron DeSantis (R).
Meloy added that the Sunshine State also has the opportunity to elect its first trans state legislator, Ashley Brundage. Together with the other LGBTQ candidates running in Florida, her election could potentially triple the number of out state lawmakers serving in the legislature.
Congress
McBride, other US lawmakers travel to Denmark
Trump’s demand for Greenland’s annexation overshadowed trip
Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride is among the 11 members of Congress who traveled to Denmark over the past weekend amid President Donald Trump’s continued calls for the U.S. to take control of Greenland.
McBride, the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, traveled to Copenhagen, the Danish capital, with U.S. Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and U.S. Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.), and Sarah Jacobs (D-Calif.). The lawmakers met with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic MP Pipaluk Lynge, among others.
“I’m grateful to Sen. Coons for his leadership in bringing together a bipartisan, bicameral delegation to reaffirm our support in Congress for our NATO ally, Denmark,” said McBride in a press release that detailed the trip. “Delaware understands that our security and prosperity depend on strong partnerships rooted in mutual respect, sovereignty, and self-determination. At a time of growing global instability, this trip could not be more poignant.”
Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark with a population of less than 60,000 people. Trump maintains the U.S. needs to control the mineral-rich island in the Arctic Ocean between Europe and North America because of national security.
The Associated Press notes thousands of people on Saturday in Nuuk, the Greenlandic capital, protested against Trump. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is among those who have criticized Trump over his suggestion the U.S. would impose tariffs against countries that do not support U.S. annexation of Greenland.
A poll that Sermitsiaq, a Greenlandic newspaper, and Berlingske, a Danish newspaper, commissioned last January indicates 85 percent do not want Greenland to become part of the U.S. The pro-independence Demokraatit party won parliamentary elections that took place on March 12, 2025.
“At this critical juncture for our countries, our message was clear as members of Congress: we value the U.S.-Denmark partnership, the NATO alliance, and the right of Greenlanders to self-determination,” said McBride on Sunday in a Facebook post that contained pictures of her and her fellow lawmakers meeting with their Danish and Greenlandic counterparts.
Congress
Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is among those who spoke at an “ICE Out for Good” protest that took place outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s headquarters in D.C. on Tuesday.
The protest took place six days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
Good left behind her wife and three children.
(Video by Michael K. Lavers)
Congress
Advocates say MTG bill threatens trans youth, families, and doctors
The “Protect Children’s Innocence” Act passed in the House
Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a long history of targeting the transgender community as part of her political agenda. Now, after announcing her resignation from the U.S. House of Representatives, attempting to take away trans rights may be the last thing she does in her official capacity.
The proposed legislation, dubbed “Protect Children’s Innocence Act” is among the most extreme anti-trans measures to move through Congress. It would put doctors in jail for up to 10 years if they provide gender-affirming care to minors — including prescribing hormone replacement therapy to adolescents or puberty blockers to younger children. The bill also aims to halt gender-affirming surgeries for minors, though those procedures are rare.
Greene herself described the bill on X, saying if passed, “it would make it a Class C felony to trans a child under 18.”
According to KFF, a nonpartisan source for health policy research, polling, and journalism, 27 states have enacted policies limiting youth access to gender-affirming care. Roughly half of all trans youth ages 13–17 live in a state with such restrictions, and 24 states impose professional or legal penalties on health care practitioners who provide that care.
Greene has repeatedly introduced the bill since 2021, the year she entered Congress, but it failed to advance. Now, in exchange for her support for the National Defense Authorization Act, the legislation reached the House floor for the first time.
According to the 19th, U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first trans member of Congress, rebuked Republicans on the Capitol steps Wednesday for advancing anti-trans legislation while allowing Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire — a move expected to raise health care costs for millions of Americans.
“They would rather have us focus in and debate a misunderstood and vulnerable one percent of the population, instead of focusing in on the fact that they are raiding everyone’s health care,” McBride said. “They are obsessed with trans people … they are consumed with this.”
Polling suggests the public largely opposes criminalizing gender-affirming care.
A recent survey by the Human Rights Campaign and Global Strategy Group found that 73 percent of voters in U.S. House battleground districts oppose laws that would jail doctors or parents for providing transition-related care. Additionally, 77 percent oppose forcing trans people off medically recommended medication. Nearly seven in 10 Americans said politicians are not informed enough to make decisions about medical care for trans youth.
The bill passed the House and now heads to the U.S. Senate for further consideration.
According to reporting by Erin Reed of Erin In The Morning, three Democrats — U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas and Don Davis of North Carolina — crossed party lines to vote in favor of the felony ban, joining 213 Republicans. A total of 207 Democrats voted against the bill, while three lawmakers from both parties abstained.
Advocates and lawmakers warned the bill is dangerous and unprecedented during a multi-organizational press call Tuesday. Leaders from the Human Rights Campaign and the Trevor Project joined U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Dr. Kenneth Haller, and parents of trans youth to discuss the potential impact of restrictive policies like Greene’s — particularly in contrast to President Donald Trump’s leniency toward certain criminals, with more than 1,500 pardons issued this year.
“Our MAGA GOP government has pardoned drug traffickers. They’ve pardoned people who tried to overthrow the government on January 6, but now they want to put pediatricians and parents into a jail cell for caring for their kids,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson. “No one asked for Marjorie Taylor Greene or Dan Crenshaw or any politician to be in their doctor’s office, and they should mind their own business.”
Balint, co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, questioned why medical decisions are being made by lawmakers with no clinical expertise.
“Parents and doctors already have to worry about state laws banning care for their kids, and this bill would introduce the risk of federal criminal prosecution,” Balint said. “We’re talking about jail time. We’re talking about locking people up for basic medical care, care that is evidence-based, age-appropriate and life-saving.”
“These are decisions that should be made by doctors and parents and those kids that need this gender-affirming care, not certainly by Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
Haller, an emeritus professor of pediatrics at St. Louis University School of Medicine, described the legislation as rooted in ideology rather than medicine.
“It is not science, it is just blind ideology,” Haller said.
“The doctor tells you that as parents, as well as the doctor themselves, could be convicted of a felony and be sentenced up to 10 years in prison just for pursuing a course of action that will give your child their only chance for a happy and healthy future,” he added. “It is not in the state’s best interests, and certainly not in the interests of us, the citizens of this country, to interfere with medical decisions that people make about their own bodies and their own lives.”
Haller’s sentiment is echoed by doctors across the country.
The American Medical Association, the nation’s largest organization that represents doctors across the country in various parts of medicine has a longstanding support for gender-affirming care.
“The AMA supports public and private health insurance coverage for treatment of gender dysphoria and opposes the denial of health insurance based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” their website reads.
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, senior vice president of public engagement campaigns at the Trevor Project, agreed.
“In Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill [it] even goes so far as to criminalize and throw a parent in jail for this,” Heng-Lehtinen said. “Medical decisions should be between patients, families, and their doctors.”
Rachel Gonzalez, a parent of a transgender teen and LGBTQ advocate, said the bill would harm families trying to act in their children’s best interests.
“No politician should be in any doctor’s office or in our living room making private health care decisions — especially not Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Gonzalez said. “My daughter and no trans youth should ever be used as a political pawn.”
Other LGBTQ rights activists also condemned the legislation.
Tyler Hack, executive director of the Christopher Street Project, called the bill “an abominable attack on the transgender community.”
“Marjorie Taylor Greene’s last-ditch effort to bring her 3-times failed bill to a vote is an abominable attack on the transgender community and further cements a Congressional career defined by hate and bigotry,” they said. “We are counting down the days until she’s off Capitol Hill — but as the bill goes to the floor this week, our leaders must stand up one last time to her BS and protect the safety of queer kids and medical providers. Full stop.”
Hack added that “healthcare is a right, not a privilege” in the U.S., and this attack on trans healthcare is an attack on queer rights altogether.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene has no place in deciding what care is necessary,” Hack added. “This is another attempt to legislate trans and queer people out of existence while peddling an agenda rooted in pseudoscience and extremism.”
U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, also denounced the legislation.
“This bill is the most extreme anti-transgender legislation to ever pass through the House of Representatives and a direct attack on the rights of parents to work with their children and their doctors to provide them with the medical care they need,” Takano said. “This bill is beyond cruel and its passage will forever be a stain on the institution of the United States Congress.”
The bill is unlikely to advance in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to pass.
