A group of major LGBTQ+ rights organizations and activists sent a letter to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) asking the party to “do more” to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans in the face of attacks by the Trump administration and the broader GOP.
Representing groups like the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and PFLAG, the letter declared, “Elected Democratic officials have pushed back, voted no, exercised their veto authority, and stood up as champions for LGBTQ+ people, and particularly for the transgender community. We recognize and appreciate those efforts. But the party’s leaders simply must do more.”
The signatories criticized the actions of certain Democrat officials who have chosen to waver on LGBTQ+ rights as a compromise with Republicans.
“Since the election, a small but vocal number of Democratic officials seem to have wavered on their conviction that LGBTQ+ people deserve the equal protection of the laws. Some have suggested a strategy of appeasement: that compromising with a little bit of discrimination against a particularly misunderstood and powerless segment of our community could satisfy anti-equality opponents. We have fought these same opponents for decades, in state houses, in Congress, and at the ballot box, and we can say unequivocally that this strategy will not work.”
The letter ended with a gentle but firm plea, showing sympathy and understanding toward those who might express confusion on the matter while still communicating that it is inexcusable to throw LGBTQ+ people under the bus for the sake of one’s political career.
“We can acknowledge that Americans of good faith, including our political leaders, don’t always have a full understanding of people who are different from them, and the LGBTQ+ community is not exempt.”
“It is okay to be a person, with good intentions, who doesn’t have all the answers – and we are here to provide support as political leaders and the public come to a conversation in which they seek to better understand our community. But it is unacceptable to the undersigned organizations — representing millions of Americans across the country — for prominent Democrats to give cover to anti-LGBTQ+ arguments.”
“The future of the Democratic Party must be one that believes in the civil rights and freedoms of all, and shows up for communities who are the target of misinformation, hate and bullying from extremist actors.”
Since taking office, Donald Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders targeting trans people. He has ordered the federal government to deny the existence of trans people and scrub any mention of language promoting “gender ideology” from federal institutions and those that receive federal funding. He has mandated that educational institutions bar trans people from participating in sports that do not match their sex assigned at birth, and he has directed hospitals to deny gender-affirming care to trans people under the age of 19.
Trump’s actions have emboldened other Republicans to act on prejudice and introduce anti-LGBTQ+ bills in their states.
According to the ACLU, over 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have already been introduced in 2025. Last month, Iowa became the first state to strike existing anti-discrimination protections for transgender people from its civil liberty code, and Republican lawmakers from five states have introduced resolutions asking the Supreme Court to overturn marriage equality.
Many liberals have expressed feelings that Democratic leaders are not doing enough to fight this onslaught of hate. Even more, some Democratic officials have expressly supported efforts to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports. Gavin Newsom, for example, appeared on far-right activist Charlie Kirk’s podcast and said that transgender athletes participating in girls’ and women’s sports is “deeply unfair.”
