Massachusetts Democrat apologizes for remarks on transgender athletes

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, made headlines in 2024 when he said he didn’t want his daughters playing against biological males. Now he has apologized for those remarks.

Moulton said he was sorry during a debate before the Sept. 1 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, where he is challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. Ed Markey.

“I deeply recognize your trauma, and I’m sorry if my comments hurt you,” Moulton said Monday when asked about his remarks, which followed Donald Trump’s election in November 2024. “That was not my intention.”

Moulton then cited his support for the Transgender Bill of Rights and the Equality Act. He also pointed to his perfect voting score from the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT activist group.

The debate moderator asked whether Moulton still feared a male athlete could hurt his daughters. Moulton did not answer yes or no. Instead, he spoke about his young children playing coed sports.

“I stand 100% with the trans community,” Moulton added.

His answer left his position on girls’ sports unclear. He apologized for the hurt his comments caused but offered no clear standard for when a male athlete should be barred from a girls’ team.

“I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete,” he said in November 2024, telling the New York Times that Democrats were too afraid to speak openly about difficult issues. LGBT groups and several Massachusetts Democrats rebuked him.

In an April 2026 Washington Post interview, Moulton said he still stood by his comment but felt bad that some people were hurt by it.

Yet, his voting record never matched his words.

Moulton voted against the federal Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act in January 2025. The measure would have based school sports teams on biological sex. It passed the House but failed in the Senate.

“I firmly believe that there should be reasonable restrictions on transgender athletes in competitive sports,” Moulton wrote in his official vote statement, adding that the proposal was too broad.

Moulton objected to applying the same rule to young children and older athletes. He said he wanted room for recreational coed sports.

The representative repeated that broad view in March 2025. His public statements never identified an age cutoff or explained how his policy would apply to competitive sports.

The issue of transgender athletes in girls’ sports creates a political challenge for Moulton within his party.

His new stance comes as Markey remains the favorite in the Senate race after winning about 73% of the vote at the Massachusetts Democratic convention to Moulton’s 27%.

A University of New Hampshire poll released June 30 found Markey leading 41% to 35%. Another 23% were undecided. The survey of 370 likely Democratic primary voters had a margin of error of 5.1 percentage points.

Moulton has done better with moderate Democrats and independent voters, according to the poll. Massachusetts lets independent voters choose a Democratic ballot.

A March 2025 UNH poll found 63% of Massachusetts residents opposed allowing transgender female athletes who were male at birth to compete in women’s sports. Twenty-seven percent supported it.

Registered Democrats leaned the other way. Fifty-one percent supported allowing those athletes. Forty-one percent opposed them.

Those numbers help explain why a position that polls well statewide can bring political consequences in a Democratic primary.

Moulton is not the first Democrat to retreat on this issue.

Heartlander News reported in November 2024 that Moulton and U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-New York, had challenged their party on the issue.

“I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports,” Suozzi said.

Two months later, Suozzi joined Moulton in voting against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.

Only two House Democrats voted for it, according to the official House roll call.

(Image credit: Screenshot/WGBH)