This June marks the 50th anniversary of Pride, and with WorldPride descending on D.C., the nation’s capital will become the epicenter of the monumental occasion. But the celebrations will take place amid a climate of fear. In just the first few months since his return to the White House, President Donald Trump has attacked nearly every marginalized group that didn’t vote for him, with trans Americans among his favorite targets.
Too many Democrats played right into his hands by refusing to engage in the fight at all. Democrats have won this fight before, and they can win it again — but only through confrontation, not cowardice.
Trump has always promised to protect people from various boogeymen: immigrants, the left, and now trans people.
The most devastating ad of the 2024 cycle featured a clip of Kamala Harris supporting gender-affirming surgery for incarcerated illegal immigrants. The commercial ended with the line, “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” It was cheap, cruel and wildly misleading — but brutally effective. According to Future Forward, Harris’ own billion-dollar Super PAC, the ad swung voters by 2.7 percentage points. Democrats like Bill Clinton warned that Harris’ campaign needed to respond, but after a possible response tested poorly, the campaign chose silence.
Even months after the election, Democratic leaders still haven’t figured out why that ad worked. Their takeaway? Curse more. Make more TikToks. Find the left’s version of Joe Rogan. But that’s not what people want. They want to know someone is in the ring, fighting for them. They want courage.
The trans issue in American politics is a paradox. On the one hand, it dominates headlines. Search the internet for “NCAA trans athletes” any day of the week, or spend five minutes watching Fox News, and you’ll believe that trans athletes are taking over the NCAA. Earlier this year, 13 senators signed a resolution demanding that the NCAA ban trans athletes. But guess how many trans athletes were actually competing in NCAA sports? Fewer than 10. Out of 510,000.
So why the outrage? Simple: fear. Americans are overwhelmed by change. They’re anxious, and Trump knows this. He has always promised to protect people from various boogeymen: immigrants, the left, and now, trans people.
But the MAGA outrage machine isn’t just yelling into a podcast mic; it’s leading to real harm. Trans Americans are nearly five times more likely to be victims of violent crime. And while they face this escalating threat, Trump allies like Reps. Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace are storming a Capitol Hill bathroom to confront a woman they think is trans.
The trans community needs fighters in Washington. But so far, Democrats have decided to “don’t ask, don’t tell” in this fight, or outright throw the trans community under the bus for the sake of ‘electability.’ What makes this decision even more frustrating is that trans rights aren’t even unpopular. According to a March Pew poll, 56% of Americans support protecting trans people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces. That’s nearly 15 points higher than Trump’s current favorability.
Republicans’ creepy obsession with monitoring our restrooms isn’t about safety.
The public isn’t the problem. The silence from the top is. In the attention economy, silence is surrender. Trump and his allies are loud, relentless and shameless. Unless Democrats are willing to be just as loud, but with truth and moral clarity, they will keep losing.
This Pride month, Democrats can’t remain silent like Harris did. They have to swing back. When Republicans start ramping up their attacks on Trans people, Democrats need to start showing up on the front lines, loudly calling out the GOP’s twisted obsession for exactly what it is: creepy, invasive and deeply dangerous.
Republicans’ creepy obsession with monitoring our restrooms isn’t about safety. It’s not about fairness. It’s about attention, power and fearmongering. People are looking for someone who will defend their version of the American dream, and no one’s dream includes genital checks at the bathroom door. Democrats have won this fight before. Nearly 10 years ago, North Carolina Republicans enacted the first bill restricting transgender Americans from using the bathroom matching their gender identities. But the nation mobilized to stop these bigoted bathroom checks with widespread boycotts and financial pressure even from the NCAA. A year later, the bill was repealed, though Republicans still haven’t given up. In Omaha, Nebraska, less than a month ago, Democrat John Ewing defeated three-term Mayor Jean Stothert. The incumbent, a Republican, ran a vicious anti-trans campaign. Ewing didn’t stay silent, but faced the issue head-on with a blunt slogan, “Jean is focused on potties. John is focused on fixing potholes.” And my organization, Progress Action Fund, is following in their footsteps. Next week, we’ll be releasing a sequel to our viral “Your Republican Congressman” ads, literally showing how the GOP is more concerned with checking people’s genitals than focusing on the real priorities of the American people. In our testing, this message moves the needle against Republicans more than 3 percentage points. Democrats must stop managing fear and start confronting it. Not just to defend a community under siege, but to remind every American watching that Democrats are still capable of courage. That this party remembers how to throw a punch. That, like trans rights supporters have done for decades, they are ready to resist loudly, unapologetically, and without permission.
Joe Jacobson
Joe Jacobson is a political strategist and the founder of Progress Action Fund. 
