This 80-year-old senator isn’t backing off his support for trans rights

Some Democrats have retreated from their party’s once-broad support for transgender rights. Not Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey.

“The demonization of the trans community requires political leaders to stand up and to protect them against the unconscionable attacks,” Markey told The 19th ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic Senate primary, where he faces a challenge from U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton. “I have had conversations with several dozen parents of trans kids. They make it clear to me how terrified not just the kids, but the family, have become.”

“It’s those conversations in private that have helped me to be fully energized in my efforts to protect them, to make it very clear to anyone I speak to that trans rights are human rights,” he said.

Markey, who turned 80 in July, is a liberal stalwart. The three-term senator has faced primary challenges from younger Democrats before, notably in 2020 from then-Rep. Joe Kennedy III. He’s running for reelection at a time when the party has not just wavered on trans rights but also pushed for a generational shift. But his strong support for trans people stands out — and is helping him in blue Massachusetts.

“Across the country, you have these upstart Democratic challengers that tend to be younger, calling for generational change. But these candidates tend to be progressive and are going up against Democrats in the establishment who express more moderate positions. In Massachusetts, it’s flipped,” said Tatishe Nteta, who teaches political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “We have a moderate candidate making a claim for generational replacement, attempting to oust an extremely progressive senator who is older.”

Markey and his allies have sought to contrast his stance on trans rights with that of Moulton, who over more than a decade in Congress has co-sponsored legislation in support of trans rights but, in 2024, became one of the rare Democrats to oppose trans athletes in girls’ sports following a string of stinging losses for the party.

“I have two little girls, I don’t want them 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,” Moulton told The New York Times that November, days after President Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris.

Moulton’s comments drew broad condemnation from Massachusetts Democrats, who said his remarks disparaged an already vulnerable population, misgendered trans youth and were not reflective of the party’s core values. Responding to the fallout, Moulton told MS NOW, then MSNBC: “I stand by my position. The backlash I’ve received proves my point that we can’t even have these discussions as a party.”

He struck a different chord during a televised debate with Markey in August, where he apologized for his comments and the “trauma” they may have caused. Markey criticized the move as politically motivated.

“Congressman Moulton’s apology was more about political expediency than personal accountability,” he told The 19th. “He hurt those families. He hurt those kids.”

Moulton’s campaign did not return a request for comment.

Both Moulton and Markey are supporters of the Transgender Bill of Rights, a landmark measure declaring that the federal government has a duty to protect trans and nonbinary people who experience discrimination in their day-to-day lives, which Markey introduced for the third time in February. Both Democrats are also co-sponsors of the Equality Act, and have helped defeat Republican-led proposals to bar trans student-athletes from teams that match their gender identity and restrict access to gender-affirming care for trans youth.

But LGBTQ+ rights groups have rallied overwhelmingly behind Markey, who they say is more consistently outspoken and unafraid to disavow the Trump administration’s attacks on transgender Americans.

“There’s just something really special in hearing from such a strong elected leader who cares so deeply about the community,” said Dallas Ducar, chief strategy officer for Fenway Health, an LGBTQ+ health organization based in Boston. Ducar was previously the founding president and CEO of Transhealth, a national healthcare nonprofit serving trans and gender diverse people.

“He’s not just trying to score political points, but really asking tough and important questions,” Ducar said of Markey, whom she has advised on trans healthcare since 2020. “He’s been really attentive and aware of the issues that we face, when so many other electeds can’t even get the LGBTQ+ acronym correct in the first place.”

Tyler Hack, executive director of the Christopher Street Project, a national trans rights group that has endorsed Markey, called the race “a crystal-clear contrast, and probably the clearest federal race ever in terms of building a pro-trans Congress.”

“Markey is consistent, while Moulton is calculated,” Hack said. “I think voters are seeing Moulton’s flip-flop on trans rights and thinking that they can’t trust him, because what position of his should I actually believe?”

Nationally, support for trans rights has waned, and Americans overall have grown more supportive of restrictive policies, such as those that prevent trans athletes from competing in line with their gender identity. But in deep-blue Massachusetts, the opposite appears to be true.

“I think Representative Moulton was attempting to speak to national concerns,” Nteta said of the congressman’s 2024 comments on trans athletes. “But now the chickens are coming home to roost here in Massachusetts, where this particular viewpoint is not necessarily as popular amongst Democratic primary voters.”

In a recent statewide poll, 67 percent of likely Democratic primary voters said they were less likely to support a candidate who “has expressed positions opposing transgender rights or policies.” Some said Markey’s strong support for trans people was the “leading reason” for backing his candidacy.

“Our survey provides suggestive, if not sort of hard evidence, that the issue of transgender rights and this particular policy is really doing damage to Moulton’s chances,” said Nteta, who directed the poll, which showed Markey with a nearly 30-point lead.

Moulton’s previous remarks on trans athletes could very well be a deciding factor in Tuesday’s primary, Hack said.

“I think people are not going to stand for that in a blue state like Massachusetts, when we need all the support we can get and we need people who will stand with us, not just when it’s easy, but when it’s hard,” they said.