Two Dem Senate candidates stand up for trans athletes in the face of GOP attackshttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/03/two-dem-senate-candidates-stand-up-for-trans-athletes-in-the-face-of-gop-attacks/ 🔗Daniel Villarreal (10 March 2026)
Graham Platner, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate who is trying to unseat Maine's longtime Senator Susan Collins (R), recently said that Republicans have attacked transgender rights as part of an "invented culture-war scare" to distract from economic issues (namely, taxing billionaires). A similar point was recently made by state Rep. and U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico (D-TX).
"I think there are, like, two trans kids that compete in high school sports in Maine," Platner continued. "There are 40,000 Mainers who are going to lose health care because of the lack of the Affordable Care Act extension. One of those things seems very important and real to me. One of them seems like an invented culture-war scare to keep people divided."
Platner added that, as a high school wrestler, he had competed against cisgender female opponents, and said, "There was no uproar... I'm sorry – I cannot take it seriously."
Talarico made similar comments in a March 9 MS NOW interview in which he said that, since winning Texas' Democratic Senate primary, national media interviewers have not asked him about the cost of housing or prescription drugs, adding, "The only thing the media wants to ask me about are trans athletes."
"The only minority destroying this country is the billionaires," Talarico said. Trans people are 1% of the population. Undocumented people are 1% of the population. Muslims are 1% of the population. We are all focused on the wrong 1%. Trans people aren't taking away our healthcare. Undocumented people aren't defunding our schools. Muslims aren't cutting taxes for themselves and their rich friends – it's the billionaires and their puppet politicians..."
