With President Donald Trump’s approval rating in the dumpster and the wind in their sails heading into the 2026 elections, all the Democratic Party seemingly has to do to win big is offer Americans a semi-sane alternative to the chaos of this administration.
Naturally, major party leaders such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have decided now is the perfect time to introduce a breathtakingly radical “Transgender Bill of Rights.”
The non-binding resolution lays out a series of deeply controversial policy positions on gender issues and was introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). It has support in the Senate from major figures, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). On the House side, it has the backing of Ocasio-Cortez and almost 100 others.
“With the Trans Bill of Rights, we are laying out a comprehensive vision to provide protections for transgender and nonbinary people — a vision that ensures every single person has a chance to thrive,” Jayapal says. “A vision that says: you are us, you belong, and you are worthy of the same rights as everyone else.”
Of course, good-hearted Americans across the political spectrum surely agree that people who identify as transgender should be safe and are entitled to the same legal rights as anyone else. The problem with this resolution is that it goes far, far beyond that and puts these major Democratic figures at odds not just with the public, but with reality itself.
First, throughout the document, the false notion of “non-binary” identity is repeatedly affirmed and embraced. This idea incorrectly suggests that people who are less masculine or feminine than typical might actually be neither male nor female (or somehow both) if that is how they feel inside. It is at odds with the objective truth that essentially all humans are male or female, and while rare intersex conditions exist, even those with such genetic abnormalities can typically be classified into the sex binary. Regardless, almost none of the people who claim to be “non-binary” are intersex.
What’s more, these “progressives” are unwittingly embracing a “non-binary” ideology that is sexist and regressive, as it suggests that if you’re an effeminate male, you might actually not be one at all, rather than affirming the actually tolerant view: that it’s fine to express yourself in an atypical way as either a male or a female.
Nonetheless, these Democrats even call for “non-binary” to be enshrined into federal law and to resume the Biden-era policy where individuals could falsely list their sex as “X” on government documents such as passports. To all but the most hyper-online progressive base, this isn’t “inclusion” — it’s insanity. Yet this is really only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the “Transgender Bill of Rights.”
The resolution further demands that minors be able to access experimental and unethical “gender transition” treatments, which include sterilizing cross-sex hormones, and it does so by falsely claiming that these treatments are “essential, safe, and life-saving health care.” (Emphasis added.) In reality, there is no evidence that these treatments reduce suicide in transgender-identifying minors, and even the American Civil Liberties Union’s transgender attorney admitted as much before the Supreme Court.
These Democrats also demand that biologically male students be allowed to compete in women’s and girls’ sports, bizarrely framing this as an issue of “transgender rights” rather than one of fairness and safety for biological females. The document further suggests that biologically male people, simply subject to how they self-identify, should be allowed to enter and use sensitive women’s spaces such as locker rooms and nude spas — as a matter of federal civil rights law!
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Oh, and, just for good measure, they threw in “codifying the right to abortion care… for everyone” to boot, not bothering to explain what that has to do with transgender people.
Thankfully, there’s no chance of this agenda gaining majority support in Congress anytime soon, and it’s a non-binding resolution, anyway. But it does serve one actual purpose: putting many Democratic stars on the record on fringe positions that will surely come back to haunt them in 2026, 2028, and beyond.
Brad Polumbo is an independent journalist and host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.