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More Dems Jump Ship after ‘Insane’ Vote against Girls’ Sports

January 22, 2025

Democrats lost plenty of voters to Donald Trump last November — and the ones who stuck around seem increasingly sorry they did. That’s because three weeks into this new Congress, the party of Joe Biden refuses to abandon the wildly unpopular policies he represented. Maybe they thought they could survive by leaning into their left flank. There’s just one problem: they’re running for the exits too.

The party’s post-election miscalculations came into greater focus last week when the House voted on a bill to protect girls’ sports — an issue that even The New York Times admits has 79% support. But instead of listening to Americans and the message delivered in the 2024 elections, Democrats doubled down, proving they’re incapable of flexibility on issues of radical transgenderism.

While two Democrats had enough sense to align with the GOP, the rest of the party was almost deranged — declaring (falsely) that Rep. Greg Steube’s (R-Fla.) bill would lead to the genital inspections of eight-year-old kids or even sexual abuse. Led by Jeffries, they referred to the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act as the “House GOP Child Predator Empowerment Act.” To a lot of their faithful, this isn’t just another instance of misreading the room — it’s a sign that the party is full of unrepentant extremists, incapable of acknowledging reason or established norms. 

The red lights have been blinking on the dashboard for a while, but it’ll be much harder to ignore the wide-scale defection underway. Law Professor Gary Francione, a “lifelong Democrat dating back to the 1970s,” voted for Kamala Harris in November, and, Fox News points out, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), one of the members who voted against Steube’s bill last week.

Watching his party lie about the bill was the last straw for Francione, who said he was “very upset” by the Democrats’ charade, “because it screamed out lack of integrity, lack of honesty.” “This is how you fight battles?” he asked. “By trying to insult other people who oppose you and disagree with you and insinuate that they’re child molesters or pedophiles? It seems to me you’ve lost the game. … I don’t know how they’re ever going to come back from this.”

And in case you mistake Francione for a moderate, he’s a vegan, LGBT, abortion, and animal rights activist. But even he was so disgusted by the Democrats’ inability to step back and reevaluate their position that he unregistered from the party. “I can say confidently of the people I know who are Democrats who I’ve spoken to, the vast majority of them are very unhappy about all of this stuff and feel that the party has lost its way,” he shook his head. “I know a couple who said they are going to [unregister as well].”

On X, he declared in a viral post, “In light of the irresponsible and unhinged comments of @AOC, @RepJayapal, @RepJerryNadler and others concerning the bill to keep males out of girls’/women’s sports, and the 206 Democratic votes against the bill, I have, after decades as a Democrat, registered as an Independent.” Please understand, he continued, “that this is not the only issue concerning which I have disagreed with other Dems. But I have always thought that one could do more from the inside to shift thinking. But when we are at a point where those who oppose boys in girls’ sport are characterized as ‘empowering predators,’ remaining a member is no longer feasible.”

Their argument, Francione insisted, is “discriminatory” against girls and women, and their argument about the legislation is “insane” and “irresponsible.” “I thought it was very unfair to the large number of very decent people who are concerned about fairness and safety in women’s sports,” he said. “These young girls, they train hard, they work hard, and then they get things taken away from them by men!”

In one of the more irrational floor speeches, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex (D-N.Y.) resorted to slandering the 80% of Americans who believe in biological sex (including a supermajority of her own party). “Bigoted folks love this bill. Assaulters love this bill. But also, CEOs love this bill because Los Angeles is on fire right now and this is the number one priority this majority has. … Trans girls are girls!”

When two members of the caucus sided with Republicans, the Squad member went so far as to bemoan what poor shape the party is in. “We can’t be ninnies about this,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent Tuesday. “These are just the early days. Trump hasn’t even been sworn in yet, and if a little bitty sports bill was gonna make Dems defect, we’re not in good shape.”

To most girls and women in sports, it’s not a “little bitty” issue that men are stealing their placements, podiums, and privacy. U.S. Olympic cyclist Inga Thompson, another longtime Democrat, said recently that the first time Trump ran, she made fun of him. “This time around, my position is, ‘If he’s going to protect women, I will vote for him.’ This is the biggest threat to women that I can think of happening in my generation. And I have to vote for women.”

After 206 Democrats thumbed their nose at the threat facing America’s daughters, Thompson exploded. “Did they not learn their lesson at the Olympics about how tone-deaf they are, how blind they are about what they’re doing to women?” she said. “I’m angry at the party, being a Democrat myself, that they continue to throw women under the bus. It would have been so easy for them to allow common sense to come back. But they won’t. It’s the final straw.”

Shame on Democrats, Martina Navratilova fumed. The tennis legend, who openly identifies as a lesbian, reiterated that they “don’t care about women, girls, and their safety, fairness.” And yet she’s the one, Navratilova pointed out, who’s being called a “homophobe.” “‘You’re a bigot, you’re a transphobe, you’re a Nazi, you’re a fascist, you’re a communist,’ everything and everything in between. And this is coming from the Left. I am the Left!” she insisted. “My people are turning on me. They’re turning on us, women, who speak up for women’s sex-based rights.”

All-American swimmer and activist Riley Gaines was just as furious. The majority of Americans don’t think this is a partisan issue, she argued on “Fox & Friends.” “But apparently, November 5th taught the Democrats nothing. I was curious going into this, will we see people double down like we saw from AOC, or will we see people start to slowly recant from their position?”

The answer has been astonishing. “And if you can remember, a few months back,” Gaines reminded people, “… you had Congressman Seth Moulton (D-Mass.). He went on the news, and he said, ‘Look, we’ve become too radical as a party. I have daughters, I don’t want my daughters on the court or on the field with boys.’ But even Congressman Moulton was pressured into voting in opposition of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. But that tells you something. It tells you that more than a party, what the Democrats are is truthfully [a] cult.”

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.



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