Former Vice President Kamala Harris says that, despite her “deep connection” to the trans community, she still holds “concerns” about their inclusion in sport.
In an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, 107 Days by Kamala Harris – which offers insight into her 2024 presidential campaign against Donald Trump – the politician reflects on her stance on trans rights.
Harris writes that she has “been an ally of the LGBTQ+ community for my entire life,” noting the disproportionate violence faced by trans people and warning that Trump’s anti-trans rhetoric “was painting a bulls-eye on their backs and putting them in peril.”
“This is a community with which I have a deep connection,” says Harris, who ultimately gained 86% of the LGBTQIA+ vote in the election, with support higher among LGBTQIA+ people of colour. “There was no way I was going to go against my very nature and turn on transgender people.”
Trump’s campaign memorably commissioned a series of advertisements with the tagline: “Kamala is for they/them/ I am for you” – a line that proved effective in shifting momentum in his favour.
Although Harris refuted the idea that Trump’s ad was a “knockout punch” against her campaign, she acknowledges that it succeeded as a “winning message” and admitted her own campaign should have “given even more attention to how we might mitigate Trump’s attacks.”
As Sarah McBride, the first openly trans member of Congress, explained: “It was the concept in that line – that Kamala Harris, according to the ad, was for a small group of people, and Donald Trump was there for ‘you’.”
Despite her earlier comments, Harris says in her memoir that she agrees “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.
“With goodwill and common sense, I believe we can come up with ways to do this, without vilifying and demonizing children.”
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It’s worth noting that trans individuals comprise approximately 1–2% of the U.S. population and represent less than 0.002% of U.S. college athletes. That number is smaller for Olympians, at just 0.001%.
Despite these minuscule numbers, trans athletes’ participation in sports has become a major flashpoint in culture wars, with LGBTQIA+ activists arguing that such focus distracts from more pressing issues while generating unnecessary stigma for an already marginalised community.
Harris’ memoir also reveals that her initial first choice for a running mate was then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who made history in 2019 as the first openly gay man to launch a Democratic presidential campaign.
“He would have been an ideal partner — if I were a straight white man,” wrote Harris, who ultimately chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. “But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man.
“Part of me wanted to say, Screw it, let’s just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk.”
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