Indiana Democrats split on transgender athlete ban
Some Democrats in Indiana and across the country are starting to walk back from the party's stances on transgender rights — positions once embraced on principle but now increasingly seen as political liabilities.
Why it matters: The reversal follows the 2024 campaign, during which the Trump team spent millions on ads targeting transgender women and girls in sports and criticizing Democratic nominee Kamala Harris' stance. At the same time, national party leaders are punting trans rights to local communities.
The political effects are trickling down, and advocates fear for LGBTQ+ communities if their longtime allies no longer have the political will to stand with them.
Driving the news: Statehouse Democrats split on House Bill 1041, which bans transgender girls and women from playing on women's collegiate sports teams.
Gov. Mike Braun signed the bill into law this week.
Flashback: HB 1041 expanded on a 2022 law that prohibited transgender girls from playing on K-12 girls sports teams.
Not a single Democrat supported the 2022 bill.
State of play: This year, four Democrats in the House and four in the Senate voted in favor of HB 1041.
Those who supported it were Reps. Wendy Dant Chesser, Ed DeLaney, Chuck Moseley and Tanya Pfaff and Sens. David Niezgodski, Rodney Pol, Lonnie Randolph and Greg Taylor.
"We each looked at the emails we received from our constituents," said Minority Leader Sen. Shelli Yoder (D-Bloomington), who voted against the bill. "So every person voted their district."
Yoder said transgender rights have been weaponized and turned into a political football.
"You see these political ads and the fear of the miscommunication that comes as a result of these bills, and unfortunately, that's where we've landed."
What they're saying: "This is a very difficult vote," DeLaney said during a committee hearing earlier this session. The Indianapolis Democrat voted against the 2022 legislation.
DeLaney had suggested leaving the decision to the NCAA, which had already barred transgender girls and women from female sports, but ultimately voted in favor of HB 1041. "Both … will keep males out of female sports, so on that broad principle we're in agreement," he said.
"But I'm not part of the message that we want to belittle people who are having a difficult choice in life as to what they think their sex is."
Zoom in: IYG, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit, said in a statement it was "deeply disturbed by the advancement of legislation targeting LGBTQ+ Hoosiers, particularly transgender individuals, with bipartisan support."
"It's very disappointing," Zoe O'Haillin-Berne, IYG's director of engagement, told Axios. "It sends a message to our young people that they weren't worth fighting for, and that's devastating."
O'Haillin-Berne said she's afraid Indiana could see a backslide in rights for the wider queer community.
The big picture: Some top Democrats nationally have drifted rightward in an apparent attempt to make sense of the 2024 election losses.
Rahm Emanuel — former Chicago mayor and U.S. ambassador to Japan, who has played coy about a 2028 White House run — told Axios: "Some kids in the classroom are debating which pronouns apply, and the rest of the class doesn't know what a pronoun is. That's a crisis."
In a conversation with right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk on California Gov. Gavin Newsom's podcast, Newsom contended that trans athletes competing in girls' and women's sports was "deeply unfair."
The other side: The Human Rights Campaign and other LGBTQ+ advocacy groups called on the Democratic Party "to do more" to stand up for LGBTQ+ rights.
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