Democrats regained control of the U.S. Congress after voters in four states approved transgender-related restrictions, leaving a contested issue on the party’s agenda as it looks toward the 2028 presidential race, Reuters reported.
The measures in Washington, Colorado, Arizona and Nebraska either limited transgender children’s access to school sports teams or barred gender-affirming surgeries for minors, Reuters reported. In Nebraska, voters added a youth sports restriction to the state constitution.
Before the election, 27 states had laws restricting transgender youths’ participation in sports, according to the nonprofit Movement Advancement Project. The ballot results in Washington, Colorado and Arizona came alongside Democratic majorities in state and federal contests, Reuters reported.
Republican campaigns ran ads accusing Democrats of being too permissive on transgender athletes and medical care for minors, Reuters reported. Democratic candidates took different approaches: some adopted more conservative positions, some defended transgender rights and others avoided the subject. Reuters said the party’s difficulty answering similar attacks in 2024 was widely viewed as a factor in Kamala Harris’ loss to Donald Trump.
In an April Reuters/Ipsos poll, 67% of respondents supported barring transgender people from female school sports. Support stood at 92% among Republicans and 44% among Democrats.
Lanae Erickson, senior vice president at Third Way, said Democratic candidates’ emphasis on fairness and rules in sports helped soften Republican attacks. She cautioned that this did not show voters had been persuaded on the underlying issues. Critics warned that moving toward Republican positions could alienate LGBTQ voters and progressives, Reuters reported.
Two other transgender-related proposals failed. Washington voters rejected a measure that would have widened parents’ access to school records. Missouri voters turned down a proposal combining limits on gender-affirming care for minors with repeal of abortion rights.
Rachel Tomlinson Dick, executive director of Out Nebraska, anticipated more state ballot fights over transgender policy, Reuters reported. Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, senior vice president at the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth advocacy group, said political hostility continues to harm young people. “That kind of cultural hostility is not going to go away overnight,” he said.
