Many Democrats silent after Supreme Court upholds state transgender sports laws

Congressional Democrats are staying mum about their potential next moves after the Supreme Court dealt a blow to transgender athletes, underscoring a politically fraught issue that continues to divide the party ahead of the November midterm elections.

The court ruled Tuesday that states may bar biological males from competing on girls’ and women’s school sports teams, upholding laws in Idaho and West Virginia, and effectively preserving similar laws in the 25 other states that restrict participation based on biological sex.

The ruling — which prompted cheers among Republicans — did not interfere with the remaining states that continue to allow biological males on girls’ and women’s sports teams.

Progressive Democrats sharply criticized the decision, while the vast majority of elected officials in the party did not issue public statements. None, however, appeared to outline any legislative response.

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“I want every trans kid to know that there are people here in Congress fighting for you,” Rep. Sarah Jacobs, D-Calif., said in a video posted to social media. “We are going to stand up for all women and girls, which includes trans women and girls.”

Jacobs, a junior member of House Democratic leadership and co-chair of the Trans Equality Task Force, did not say whether Democrats would introduce legislation in response to the court’s ruling.

The Congressional Equality Caucus, a Democratic-aligned group advocating for LGBTQ rights, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., also did not outline any legislative response. The Equality Caucus, however, posted a series of posts on social media slamming the decision, including decrying the outcome as “devastating” for transgender athletes.

Digital reached out to spokespersons for Jacobs, Jeffries and the Congressional Equality Caucus for comment but did not hear back.

The relatively muted response comes as public polling has consistently found broad opposition to transgender athletes in women’s sports, including among Democrats, suggesting that some lawmakers may be out of step with their own voters.

Protesters against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 13, 2026. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

A survey conducted by The New York Times in 2025 found that nearly eight in ten Americans opposed biological males competing in women’s sports. Roughly 70% of Democrats or those who “lean Democrat” held that view, according to the poll.

Democrats hailing from the centrist side of the party were largely quiet on the court’s ruling.

Few Democratic lawmakers facing competitive re-election challenges from Republicans commented on the court’s decision, a Digital analysis of Cook Political Report election data found.

Meanwhile, Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., who is seeking a third House term in a Republican-leaning district, issued a positive statement following the court’s ruling.

“The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a significant ruling affirming that states possess the legal authority to maintain separate sports teams based on biological sex,” Davis wrote in a written statement. “Title IX has played a vital role in expanding athletic opportunities for women and girls, and we must continue safeguarding those opportunities.”

Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., was among the relatively few Democrats who expressed support for the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding state laws restricting women’s sports based on biological sex. (David Yeazell, File)

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Meanwhile, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., a top GOP target in November’s midterm elections and a member of the Equality Caucus, acknowledged Wednesday that the trans rights movement misses some of the “nuance” about women’s sports.

“At those town halls, what I saw was that the people who were the most upset, a lot of them had spent the last 12 years driving their girls to sports practice, and they view their best shot of their student getting a college education as an athletic scholarship,” Perez told CNN in an interview. “And so when we rush to moralize and be like, ‘This is all about love vs. hate,’ I think we miss some of the nuance.”

The Washington Democrat did not directly state whether she agreed with the court’s ruling.

In the Senate, responses to the decision were few and far between. Requests for comment from several Democratic lawmakers’ offices on whether they would seek to challenge the court’s decision, should they regain a majority in the upper chamber, went unanswered.

Notably silent on the issue was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who lauded the Supreme Court’s decision upholding birthright citizenship the same day and had posted about attending New York City’s Pride parade days before.

Some of the most vocal supporters of trans rights in the upper chamber did, however, weigh in, vowing to “keep fighting” for transgender athletes.

Demonstrators hold colored smoke devices during a rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 20, 2025. (Bryan Dozier/Middle East Images via AFP)

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., one of the earliest supporters of LGBTQ rights in the Senate, who introduced the Trans Bill of Rights, charged that the court’s decision “again cleared the way for Trump and MAGA Republicans to discriminate against the trans community.”

“This decision tears trans athletes from their teams and the sports they love,” Markey, who is in a tight bid for re-election against Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., said on X. “We will keep fighting. Discrimination and hate will not win.”

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also weighed in, accusing “right-wing extremists and the MAGA movement” of being “determined to single out, target, and harm the trans community.”

“My heart is with trans kids and their loved ones,” she said on X. “I won’t stop fighting for them.”