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Harris writes that Trump's rhetoric on trans people was "putting them in peril.” | STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
By Jeremy B. White
09/19/2025 06:06 PM EDT
Kamala Harris in her new memoir expresses reservations about transgender athletes competing on girls’ sports teams, echoing other national Democrats who have voiced a position long associated with conservatives.
President Donald Trump’s campaign hammered Harris over her positions on trans rights, releasing a now-famous ad with the tagline “Kamala is for they/them. I am for you” that Democrats across the country, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, acknowledged were effective. But Harris argues the Trump campaign misrepresented her positions, including on youth sports.
“I agree with the concerns expressed by parents and players that we have to take into account biological factors such as muscle mass and unfair student athletic advantage when we determine who plays on which teams, especially in contact sports,” Harris writes. “With goodwill and common sense, I believe we can come up with ways to do this, without vilifying and demonizing children.”
The passage makes Harris the latest national Democrat to question the fairness of allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports. Newsom broke with much of his party earlier this year by saying he felt their participation was “deeply unfair,” spurring both fury and praise from fellow Democrats and presaging a battle with the Trump administration over a transgender California athlete who competed in a state track-and-field championship.
Harris also defends telling the American Civil Liberties Union during her presidential primary campaign in 2019 that she supported providing gender transition treatment to people in prison and immigration detention, which also appeared in a Trump campaign ad. She writes that she supported what was “medically necessary,” adding that the law mandates medical care for prisoners.
A native of the liberal Bay Area who rose to power in San Francisco politics, Harris writes that she “has been an ally of the LGBTQ+ community for my entire life,” noting transgender people face a disproportionate risk of violence and deploring how Trump’s rhetoric “was painting a bull’s-eye on their backs and putting them in peril.”
“This is a community with which I have a deep connection,” Harris writes, adding, “There was no way I was going to go against my very nature and turn on transgender people.”
But while she dismisses the argument that Trump’s attack ads dealt her a “knockout punch,” she concedes that it was a “winning message” and says her campaign should have “given even more attention to how we might mitigate Trump’s attacks.”
Filed Under: California, Kamala Harris
Harris writes that Trump's rhetoric on trans people was "putting them in peril.” | STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
By Jeremy B. White
09/19/2025 06:06 PM EDT
Kamala Harris in her new memoir expresses reservations about transgender athletes competing on girls’ sports teams, echoing other national Democrats who have voiced a position long associated with conservatives.
President Donald Trump’s campaign hammered Harris over her positions on trans rights, releasing a now-famous ad with the tagline “Kamala is for they/them. I am for you” that Democrats across the country, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, acknowledged were effective. But Harris argues the Trump campaign misrepresented her positions, including on youth sports.
“I agree with the concerns expressed by parents and players that we have to take into account biological factors such as muscle mass and unfair student athletic advantage when we determine who plays on which teams, especially in contact sports,” Harris writes. “With goodwill and common sense, I believe we can come up with ways to do this, without vilifying and demonizing children.”
The passage makes Harris the latest national Democrat to question the fairness of allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports. Newsom broke with much of his party earlier this year by saying he felt their participation was “deeply unfair,” spurring both fury and praise from fellow Democrats and presaging a battle with the Trump administration over a transgender California athlete who competed in a state track-and-field championship.
Harris also defends telling the American Civil Liberties Union during her presidential primary campaign in 2019 that she supported providing gender transition treatment to people in prison and immigration detention, which also appeared in a Trump campaign ad. She writes that she supported what was “medically necessary,” adding that the law mandates medical care for prisoners.
A native of the liberal Bay Area who rose to power in San Francisco politics, Harris writes that she “has been an ally of the LGBTQ+ community for my entire life,” noting transgender people face a disproportionate risk of violence and deploring how Trump’s rhetoric “was painting a bull’s-eye on their backs and putting them in peril.”
“This is a community with which I have a deep connection,” Harris writes, adding, “There was no way I was going to go against my very nature and turn on transgender people.”
But while she dismisses the argument that Trump’s attack ads dealt her a “knockout punch,” she concedes that it was a “winning message” and says her campaign should have “given even more attention to how we might mitigate Trump’s attacks.”
Filed Under: California, Kamala Harris
