Want to Know How Democrats Should Handle Trans Rights? Ask Zohran Mamdani
The 33-year-old socialist just crushed Andrew Cuomo by doing what many national Democrats won't: having convictions.
Let me tell you about two very different approaches to winning Democratic primaries in 2025.
In one corner, you had Andrew Cuomo — the establishment favorite with universal name recognition, endorsed by everyone from Bill Clinton to Michael Bloomberg. His campaign treasurer? A guy who previously worked for an anti-trans organization that fought New York's Equal Rights Amendment with “Save Girls’ Sports” messaging. Cuomo blamed trans people for Democrats’ 2024 losses.
In the other, you had Zohran Mamdani — a 33-year-old democratic socialist that nobody outside Queens had heard of a year ago. He held a Trans Community Town Hall with activist Ceyenne Doroshow. He showed up to protest when NYU Langone canceled gender-affirming care appointments for trans youth. He proposed $65 million in immediate funding for gender-affirming care through public providers. He promised to make NYC an LGBTQIA sanctuary city.
Guess who won?
Mamdani crushed Cuomo by more than seven points in Tuesday's primary. And he did it while being outspent by millions, facing attack ads calling him “too radical,” being smeared as antisemitic, and running against a former (almost) three-term governor.
This should be instructive for Democrats nationally, who've spent the months since November's defeat pointing fingers at trans people for their losses. You know the narrative by now: Republicans spent $215 million on anti-trans ads, Democrats didn't have a coherent response, and somehow this means the party needs to abandon trans rights to win back voters.
After the election, Rep. Seth Moulton rushed to tell the New York Times that Democrats “spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone” and that he doesn't want his daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.” Rep. Tom Suozzi chimed in that Democrats need to “stop pandering to the far left.” Both of these guys were endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, by the way.
Even at the Democratic National Convention — where LGBTQ speakers had been prominently featured in 2016 and 2020 — trans people were essentially erased. Only two speakers mentioned transgender people during 20 hours of main programming. The message was clear: We're running away from this issue as fast as we can.
The new head of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, Evan Low, seems to be getting the same message, reportedly telling Democrats that "We are not going to win elections by pandering just to the nine percent of voters." This from an organization whose entire mission is electing LGBTQ candidates.
But here's the thing: that strategy doesn't work. It didn't work for Kamala Harris, who gave evasive non-answers about gender-affirming care and still got hammered with those "Kamala is for they/them" ads. It didn't work for Senate Democrats like Sherrod Brown and Colin Allred, who literally ran anti-trans ads and lost anyway. And it sure as hell didn't work for Andrew Cuomo.
What Mamdani understood — and what national Democrats seem incapable of grasping — is that you don't have to choose between economic populism and protecting vulnerable people. In fact, they're the same fight.
When Mamdani talked about trans rights, he didn't treat them as some boutique cultural issue. He wove them into his broader message about affordability and economic justice. "The cost of living crisis confronting working class people across the city hits the LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard," he said, noting higher rates of unemployment and homelessness. His proposed Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs wasn't about pronouns — it was about housing, employment, and healthcare.
Look at what he actually proposed: $30 million for LGBTQ+ housing programs because “LGBTQIA+ youth are 120% more likely to experience homelessness than their peers.” Another $20 million for mental health services. $10 million specifically for organizations serving transgender New Yorkers. He talked about expanding emergency housing beds for LGBTQ 21-24 year olds and creating a Trans Workforce Development Program.
This is how you do it. You don't run from the issue. You don't throw trans kids under the bus to appease some voter who may or may not even exist. You make the case that everyone deserves healthcare, everyone deserves housing, everyone deserves to live with dignity — and yes, that includes trans people.
The contrast between approaches couldn't be clearer. While Cuomo's campaign treasurer was literally working for an organization led by a man who lost custody of his trans child after courts found him acting against the child's best interests, Mamdani was out there delivering 225,000 letters demanding NYU Langone comply with state law on gender-affirming care.
When Mamdani spoke at that protest, he didn't just make moral arguments —he made economic ones too: “The taxpayers of New York City are the biggest donors to NYU Langone — including $219 million a year in property tax exemptions alone.” See how that works? You connect the dots between corporate welfare and discrimination. You show people how their tax dollars are being used to hurt vulnerable kids. You make it a kitchen table issue.
This wasn't some narrow appeal to a “woke” base. Mamdani built a coalition that included immigrants, young progressives, working-class voters, and yes, LGBTQ people and their families. Because it turns out that when you stand for something — when you articulate a vision where everyone gets to thrive — people respond to that.
Compare that to the national Democratic approach. At the 2016 DNC, Sarah McBride spoke from the main stage, with Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney proudly declaring it was "about time" we had a trans speaker. By 2024? Radio silence. Even McBride, who won election to Congress that year as the first openly trans member, seemed to get the message — immediately pivoting to say she wouldn't fight Speaker Johnson's bathroom ban because she was focused on “kitchen table issues,” as if the two were mutually exclusive.
The result? Democrats lost anyway. Because here's what these genius strategists don't understand: Republicans are going to call Democrats radical no matter what they do. They called Joe Biden — JOE BIDEN — a radical. The solution isn't to preemptively surrender on every issue Republicans decide to attack. It's to actually stand for something and make the case for why they're right.
When you run away from defending trans people, you're not being strategic. You're being cowardly. And voters can smell cowardice from a mile away. They might not agree with everything you say, but they'll respect you for having convictions. What they won't respect is watching you throw your own supporters under the bus the second things get tough.
I get it. Polling shows that 66% of Americans think trans athletes should compete on teams matching their sex at birth. The numbers are challenging. But you know what those same polls don't capture? How many people are turned off by Democrats who stand for nothing. How many young voters stay home because they don't see anyone fighting for their friends? How many LGBTQ people and their families — millions of votes — feel abandoned by a party that's supposed to represent them?
And here's the other thing those polls don't capture: how the conversation shifts when you actually make the case. When you explain that we're talking about a handful of kids who just want to play soccer with their friends. When you talk about the real kitchen table issues — like how trans people face employment discrimination, higher rates of poverty, barriers to healthcare. When you connect it to your broader message about economic justice for all working people.
Mamdani didn't win despite his support for trans rights. (Nor did he necessarily win because of his support for trans rights.) Still, he won, and he dared to connect the protection of vulnerable people to his broader vision of economic justice. He treated his constituents like adults who could understand that a city where everyone can afford rent is also a city where trans kids can get the healthcare they need.
That's the template. Not Moulton's craven opportunism. Not the DNC's embarrassed silence. Not Evan Low apparently telling Democrats to avoid the issue. And definitely not whatever Andrew Cuomo thought he was doing by hiring anti-trans operatives while claiming to be pro-LGBTQ.
You want to win on kitchen table issues? Great. Just remember that LGBTQ people have kitchen tables too. And they vote. Their families vote. Their friends vote. Young people who believe in fairness and dignity vote.
The lesson from New York isn't that Democrats need to moderate on trans issues. What would that even mean — joining in the Republican attacks on trans rights? It's that they need to stop being afraid of their own shadows. Stop letting Republicans define the terms of debate. Stop treating basic human dignity like it's some radical position.
Mamdani showed the way forward: You integrate civil rights into your economic message. You show up for people when they're under attack. You have the courage to say that in your vision of America, everyone gets to thrive — including trans kids. And then you back it up with real policies that improve people's material conditions.
That's how you win. Not by running scared. By running on conviction.
'Stop treating basic human dignity like it's some radical position.' - 100%
The horrid national Dem leadership is magnificently out of touch with their base, because they keep running to the "center," which isn't getting them many votes (if any), but it is losing them votes in bunches. However, since they lost so badly with this run-to-the-center strategy and are incapable of looking in the mirror and conducting a modicum of self-reflection, they're turning around and blaming trans people too, even though they did jack squat at a national level to support us in the months leading up to the election, and barely even mentioned us due to cowardice.
They ran from one of their most reliable voting bases and are stunned that this base is now running from them.
Idiots. They're all feckless idiots. Hopefully races like this one wake them the f up and true progressives start to have more influence on this party and their messaging.