Why Won't Democrats Reconsider 'Gender-Affirming Care?'
Democrats know they have a problem on transgender issues, but they’re unwilling to solve it.
A few months back, the Democratic National Committee released an “autopsy” of the 2024 presidential election. That effort acknowledged what we all understand: Donald Trump’s ad warning that Kamala Harris is for “they/them” while Trump is for “you” resonated with Americans.
This came after the more moderate Democratic group Third Way warned against “ideological purity tests” and after even California Governor Gavin Newsom gave Charlie Kirk a head-fake about moderating on transgender issues early last year.
Woke ideology is an albatross about the Democratic Party’s neck, and transgenderism is the clearest example of just how toxic the “everything leftism” agenda has become. Americans have turned against everything it stands for, from men competing in women’s sports to minors taking experimental drugs and lopping off body parts.
The entire ideology traces to this idea that, on some undefined metaphysical plane, men who think they might be women really are women, and so it’s healthy for them to try to convince society they are women. It’s healthy for them to undergo experimental treatments to try to look like women. It’s not dangerous for them to compete against women in women’s sports or have access to women’s restrooms. We’ve even heard activists for this ideology claim that it doesn’t matter that we’re removing safeguards that would prevent unscrupulous men from abusing the system to prey on women.
If Democrats can’t even muster the intestinal fortitude to say no on this one issue, Americans shouldn’t trust them to return to sanity.
But why are they so in thrall to it? The American Federation of Teachers helps explain why.
The Woketopus
The Left has a massive nonprofit infrastructure dedicated to advancing the comprehensive worldview that is woke ideology. From the notion that America is systemically racist to the idea that the world is ending due to carbon emissions to a preference for technocratic experts to shape our “democracy,” the leftist dogmas that intersect with one another lead activists to march in lockstep.
Groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which became known for suing the Klan into bankruptcy now not only advocate against “white supremacy” but also for transgender ideology, for open borders, and against voter ID. The Sunrise Movement, which claims to be all about fighting climate change, now advocates against Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks from Hamas in Gaza.
My book highlights how a vast network of leftist groups, marching in ideological lockstep, infiltrated and brainwashed the federal government to push woke ideology through the Biden administration.
One of the groups in my book, the American Federation of Teachers, recently doubled down on transgender ideology, and it serves as a good example of the network of dark money funding and nonprofit groups that keeps the Left in thrall to transgender ideology.
AFT, a union that bankrolls Democrat candidates and left-leaning causes, endorsed “gender-affirming care” Sunday, despite growing concerns about the negative effects of experimental transgender medical interventions.
“Because the AFT is effectively just a branch—a wealthy branch—of the Democratic Party, the union’s latest endorsement of so-called gender-affirming care means the party will almost certainly maintain its rigid support for transgender ideology, even if that threatens both children’s health and the party’s electoral chances,” Scott Walter, president of the right-leaning Capital Research Center, told the Daily Signal in a statement Monday.
The AFT Resolution on Transgender ‘Care’
The AFT, America’s second-largest teachers union with 1.8 million members, held its annual convention from July 16 to July 19, featuring many prominent Democrat speakers and passing 38 resolutions.
The resolution titled “Protecting Medical Research, Healthcare Access and Health Equity for LGBTQIA+ Communities” condemns the administration of President Donald Trump for attacking “evidence-based healthcare and scientific inquiry” on LGBTQ+ issues.
The resolution supports medical research into LGBTQ+ issues and pledges that AFT “will support policies that protect and expand access to affordable, evidence-based healthcare, including … gender-affirming care.” It states that AFT will support “legal advocacy efforts to defend access to evidence-based healthcare.”
The Daily Signal reached out to the American Federation of Teachers for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Are Sex-Rejecting Procedures ‘Evidence-Based?’
The AFT resolution comes at a rather turbulent time for the experimental interventions euphemistically called “gender-affirming care.”
The Department of Health and Human Services conducted a peer-reviewed study last year finding little evidence for positive impacts from sex-rejecting procedures for minors. Studies have suggested these interventions cause harm, from increased cancer risks to a higher risk of suicidal thoughts.
A jury awarded a detransitioner $2 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit in February, and psychiatrists reportedly agreed to settle another detransitioner’s medical malpractice claim in January. Hospitals have distanced themselves from the Human Rights Campaign, a major transgender activist group that rates medical entities.
FROM MY DESK
📚Reading: Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms by Justin Early
Why I recommend it: Parents are so focused on living, day by day, we often don’t integrate our faith into the habits we fall into. Justin Early brings a fresh perspective on how we live our lives. He encourages moms and dads to think about ourselves as God’s children, and taking in God’s word when we face uncertainty. This book melds faith with practical wisdom and I highly recommend it.
📰Worth your time: The Democratic Party Is Turning Into a Bunch of Middle-Class Phonies by Victor Davis Hanson
A Leftist Funding Hub
The AFT’s political action arm has contributed to a wide swath of Democrat candidates in races across the country, according to public records analyzed by the parental rights group Defending Education. It contributed $500,000 to Democrat Abigail Spanberger’s 2025 gubernatorial campaign in Virginia, for example.
AFT contributed $525,000 to the Center for American Progress, an influential left-leaning think tank, between 2017 and 2025. It gave $335,000 to the center’s political action arm during the same period.
The union gave $321,500 to New Venture Fund, a dark money pass-through foundation that supports left-leaning causes and was formerly affiliated with Arabella Advisors, between 2016 and 2023. It gave $983,000 to Sixteen Thirty Fund, another dark money pass-through foundation formerly affiliated with Arabella, between 2016 and 2024.
The Daily Signal reached out to the AFT, the Democrat National Committee, the Center for American Progress, New Venture Fund, and Sixteen Thirty Fund for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
What Does It Mean?
So, AFT isn’t rethinking its commitment to transgender ideology, and the AFT bankrolls Democrats. It bankrolls the nonprofits that also support Democrats, and that formulate the Left’s political talking points. AFT President Randi Weingarten palled around with President Biden—on the very first full day of his presidency.
Woke ideology isn’t just some optional part of the Democrats’ agenda—it’s deeply entrenched in the bureaucracy that forms the Left’s narrative.
Large portions of this article were originally published on the Daily Signal.
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