Politics

Democrats look to inject fresh energy into the LGBTQ+ movement

Published

1 year ago

January 17, 2025

It’s been a dozen years since the Stonewall Democrats, a once-prominent LGBTQ+ rights group, went defunct. But now, on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, a new coalition of state-level advocacy groups is reestablishing a national presence to gird against the incoming president and a Republican-controlled Congress.

The group, the National Federation of Stonewall Democrats, comes together at a fraught time for movement, amid recriminations from within the Democratic Party that its focus on transgender rights harmed Democrats in November. Those behind the new organization, whose establishment was shared first with Blue Light News, said they plan to press congressional Democrats to oppose what they fear will be an onslaught of bills and executive actions targeting their communities — even though such efforts are likely to have a limited impact given that the party is out of power in both chambers.

“Our job is to continue to push for the Democrats who are elected to make sure that they’re speaking up,” said Jeremy Comeau, the federation’s president and a Democratic activist from Massachusetts. “If they just let the Republicans steamroll these issues through the Congress without providing the words of support for the community … we’re doomed.”

The umbrella group, composed of 21 state-level advocacy organizations, is emerging at a time when Democratic resistance to Trump and Republicans’ policies has otherwise been fractured and largely floundering since his November win.

Stonewall Democrats have reason to be on edge in the fight over transgender rights. Trump, who will be sworn in for a second term on Monday, vowed in December at the conservative gathering AmericaFest 2024: “With the stroke of my pen on Day 1, we are going to stop the transgender lunacy.”

He also promised to get “transgender out of the military” and in K-12 public schools and upon his return make it “the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders — male and female” through executive orders.

Trump’s Cabinet picks are an immediate concern for the coalition. His nominee to lead the Defense Department, Pete Hegseth, has been critical in the past about gay people serving openly in the military, though he has said more recently that they should.

But Stonewall Democrats are also dealing with fractures within their own party over transgender issues. While Hegseth was fielding senators’ questions, across the Capitol, House Republicans passed a bill banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls sports at institutions that receive federal dollars. Two House Democrats, Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, voted in support of it.

Organizers are not ruling out intervening in Democratic primaries as a method of “holding candidates accountable” — including sitting Democrats — following in the footsteps of another group, the Christopher Street Project PAC, that has said it will pressure and potentially primary Democrats who take anti-trans votes. Some activists said they feared the party may be backsliding on the issue — with at least two people affiliated with the National Federation of Stonewall Democrats calling out Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) by name.

The six-term Democrat ignited backlash from some in his party over his comments immediately following Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump that suggested the party’s electoral defeats were at least partly to blame on its embrace of transgender issues and Republicans’ success in weaponizing that against them. Republicans, for instance, had hammered Harris with an ad that said: “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.”

Following the election, Moulton, who has since tempered his comments on the issue and did not support the GOP-led transgender athlete bill, told The New York Times that “Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face.” He said he didn’t want his own daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

But his initial remarks continue to outrage LGBTQ+ advocates.

“The congressman is absolutely out of his mind if he thinks that that’s the reason why we lost the election,” Comeau said, adding that one goal of the group is “ to call out Democrats when they are using our community as a reason for these reasons that we lose elections.”

Refurbishing the Democratic Party’s credentials on LGBTQ+ issues, advocates say, will start with influencing the party’s core infrastructure. Stonewall Democrats members are meeting with candidates running to be the party’s next chair and are discussing organizing and messaging strategies around potential policy fights across levels of government. They have also established a political action committee with hopes of recruiting and supporting LGBTQ+ candidates in the 2026 midterms.

“This isn’t just simply about saying Democrats are right and Republicans are wrong,” said Brian Sims, a former state representative who made history as the first elected gay state legislator in Pennsylvania. “This is about giving the DNC and national Democrats an opportunity and platforms and expertise at the ground level to advocate for equality … but also to understand what the pipeline looks like for challengers to bad members of Congress [and] to support better members of Congress.”

Shia Kapos contributed to this report.

Politics

DC is about to pick new leaders. Trump is watching.

Published

55 minutes ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Washington will soon enter a new chapter after voters pick the capital’s first new mayor in a dozen years and its first new Congressional delegate since 1991. And no matter who wins Tuesday’s primaries, they’ll be on a collision course with President Donald Trump.

The frontrunners in both races have hinged their campaigns on opposition to Trump, who since returning to office has chipped away at Washington’s autonomy and sought to remake parts of the city in his image. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has led the city since taking office in 2015, has taken a pragmatic approach to working with the president in an apparent effort to avoid further furor. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has represented the District since 1991 and condemned Trump’s actions in strongly worded statements, but the 89-year-old has dodged the spotlight amid questions about her acuity and ability to serve.

The candidates running to replace them say that’s far from enough.

In interviews with Blue Light News, those leading candidates emphasized that they hoped to find common ground with the Trump administration and coordinate where possible, especially on projects that could jumpstart Washington’s sluggish economy. But they all drew a red line at Trump’s extraordinary law enforcement actions, including sending in the National Guard indefinitely and surging federal immigration agents in coordination with local police.

“Washington, D.C., residents want and deserve a mayor who’s going to stand up and fight back, and that’s what I’m bringing,” said Kenyan McDuffie, a relatively moderate, pro-business former D.C. Council member who is polling second in the mayor’s race. He has pledged to end coordination between the Metropolitan Police Department and ICE on his first day in office.

Janeese Lewis George, a D.C. council member who is polling more than 10 points ahead of McDuffie, has taken an even more adversarial posture against the president. She told Blue Light News she would “actively tell our employees to resist” if Trump again federalized the MPD, adding that she would work with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb “to defend D.C.”

Trump is already making known his displeasure — particularly with Lewis George, a democratic socialist whose platform and campaign are reminiscent of those of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Asked last week about the possibility of Lewis George winning the primary, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office: “I wouldn’t like it.”

“Maybe we’ll take back Washington, run it on a federal basis,” he continued. “We won’t put up with it. We’re not gonna lose our businesses.”

Lewis George’s campaign almost immediately cut Trump’s comments into an ad. “Look, we’re not going to get ICE off our streets by fearing this president,” she said in response. “We’re not going to protect our rights, or Home Rule, by complying in advance. Threatening Home Rule because you don’t like how residents are voting is an attack on democracy itself. The people of D.C. elect their mayor, and they want someone who’s gonna stand up to Donald Trump.”

There’s a similar sentiment among the leading delegate candidates.

Robert White, a city council member and one of two frontrunners in the delegate race, described Trump’s surge of federal agents and National Guard troops to the city as “lawlessness” and “the opposite of public safety.” He said he would seek to build a coalition in Congress to “push back in every way.”

Brooke Pinto, a fellow council member and the other delegate frontrunner who has centered public safety in her campaign, said the administration’s use of National Guard troops and ICE agents have not helped the city. “While I am very committed to advancing public safety in the District of Columbia, what we’re seeing from the Trump administration undermines those efforts,” she said.

That type of messaging is politically savvy in a city with an electorate that heavily supported Kamala Harris in 2024 and whose lives have been directly impacted by the president’s grip over Washington — from the troop surge to his sweeping cuts to government programs and razing of the federal workforce, which have severely contracted the District’s economy. That’s not to mention his efforts to splash his name and face across federal buildings, and mounting moves to beautify portions of the city and stand up ambitious architectural projects.

“When politicians try to interfere with our local public safety, when they are sweeping up unhoused residents, cutting jobs, when they are pushing policies that negatively affect our local economy and driving up overall costs of everything from gas to housing, I’m going to fight back,” McDuffie said.

But it sets the candidates — whoever wins — in explicit opposition to Trump, who has consistently sought to bring his enemies to heel whenever he gets the chance. The president has several levers at his disposal if he chooses to retaliate against Washington, from another federal law enforcement surge to using his influence over Congress to weaken D.C. Home Rule. The city also depends on the federal government for high-profile projects that would improve public spaces and bring jobs to the District, including upgrades to Union Station and the redevelopment of the RFK Stadium campus.

Asked how the White House is preparing for a potentially more adversarial mayor and delegate, a spokesperson referred Blue Light News back to Trump’s Oval Office comments.

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