Transgender ideology drives away longtime Democrats

Amanda Ericsson used to describe herself as a “typical purple hair, pro-choice, live-and-let-live type.” The California resident was previously in a polyamorous relationship and supported abortion. So in 2020, the choice was easy: She voted for Joe Biden.

But Ericsson’s support for Democrats evaporated when her then-13-year-old daughter announced she was “gender fluid.” For the next few years, public school officials, psychologists, family therapists, child protective services pressured her to accept her child’s new identity and pronouns, even prompting a welfare check from the local police. When she and her husband refused, the ensuing battle over how to address their daughter’s mental health and gender identity upended their family.

“I was very leftist, ‘Everybody do their own thing,’” Ericsson said. “But as I’ve watched this take hold of our society, I’m seeing the consequences of not saying, ‘No, this is not okay, this is too far.’ And I have reverted so far back, now it’s just to the point where I can’t even vote Democrat.”

This year, Ericsson says she will vote for former President Donald Trump.

She’s one of a growing number of Democrats whose disenchantment stems primarily from their party’s support for transgender policies. WORLD spoke with 10 self-identified Democrats, most of whom said they have always voted for Democrats. The majority still stand with Democrats on abortion and same-sex marriage, but they are strongly opposed to policies that would permit males to access female-only spaces and allow doctors to prescribe cross-sex hormones to gender-confused youth.

This year, only one of the Democrats interviewed said she would definitely vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. Three are throwing their support behind Trump, two are still deciding between voting Republican or independent. One plans to back an independent, one will vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who dropped out of the race last month, and two will not vote at all.

Since becoming the Democratic candidate, Harris has remained mum on the issue of transgenderism, and the Harris-Walz campaign website does not list an official position. Mainstream media groups have not pushed Harris on it: During an Aug. 29 CNN interview with Dana Bash, neither Harris nor running mate Tim Walz fielded questions about it.

But in a 2019 American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire, Harris said that as attorney general of California, she pushed the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation “to provide gender transition surgery to state inmates.” At a New Hampshire town hall event in 2019, a voter asked Harris if she would support adding a third gender to federal identification cards. “Sure,” Harris replied, before doubling down on her support of transgender policies.

In California, 52 male inmates have been approved for transfers to female-only institutions—the highest number among states that reported their data. Many of the California Democrats I spoke with found it ironic that Harris, a former California attorney general and a woman herself, has not protected female prisoners who might be harmed by the addition of men.

Trump has been more vocal on the issue. In a 2023 video posted by the former president, he said if re-elected, he would push for a bill that establishes male and female as the only genders recognized by the federal government. Trump’s campaign platform includes pushing to “keep men out of women’s sports” and banning “taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries.” In the video, Trump emphasized his campaign is “celebrating rather than erasing the things that make men and women different.”

Anna Hinrichsen, a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, said witnessing the blurring of gender lines firsthand infuriated her and made her rethink her vote. She showed me the intake form for a UCLA research study that listed four gender categories—male, female, non-binary, or “I use another term.” Hinrichsen mentioned another study that purported to study women’s habits but would include males who identify as female.

“So you’re going to have men who don’t menstruate in a study about women. You know how this is going to impact studies that affect my health? People don’t realize how crazy this is getting,” she said. Hinrichsen, a self-described moderate Democrat, plans to vote Republican this year.

Several people I spoke with did not feel free to express their views if fellow Democrats were listening. Many worried about being labeled a bigot, transphobic, or a far-right conservative.

Some disaffected Democrats tell their stories under assumed names. Of 15 people composing the grassroots advocacy group Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender, 11 use pseudonyms.

Of the 10 people I spoke with, two parents did not want their names mentioned for fear of losing a relationship with a child. One, a stepmother in California, says her husband risks losing custody of his daughter because he won’t affirm her new gender identity. “We want to speak out and fight this but we can’t speak up because of our children’s cases,” she told me. She plans to vote for Trump.

It’s hard to know how many Democrats are so dissatisfied by their party’s stance on gender that they’d consider voting for another party or not voting at all. Opinion surveys suggest Democrats largely support transgender ideology. A Gallup poll in June reported that 81 percent of political liberals and 72 percent of Democrats believe identifying as the opposite sex is morally acceptable.

Jocelyn Davis, an author in Santa Fe, N.M., doesn’t believe changing sexes is possible. She calls the Democrats’ belief “sex denialism,” but she still plans to vote for them. “It is a medical scandal. It's a human rights scandal, I agree,” she said. “But I prefer to look at the whole body of work. And I think that many of the issues that the Democrats stand firm on are issues that I want to stand firm on as well.”

Other disaffected Democrats who won’t be voting for a Democrat this year told me they would reconsider if candidates like Harris acknowledged that men cannot become women, and vice versa.

“I had always hoped there was a way to maintain my membership and still object,” said Lisa Selin Davis (no relation to Jocelyn), a New York–based writer who’s written about gender nonconformity and other gender issues. Last month, she decided to leave the Democratic Party. Selin Davis said it took years of research for her to confidently say the Democrats were wrong about gender, and she hopes more departures will send a message to the party.

“My side had erected this bulwark against questioning, and they fortified the bulwark with, ‘It’s science-based. It’s evidence-based. It’s kindness,’” she told me. “At some point, I realized that there was no way for me to tell the truth within this liberal framework I was part of, and I had to be willing to sacrifice my membership in the group in order to tell the truth.”