U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton: 'I'm Not Going To Apologize'

SALEM, MA — U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Salem) said the backlash he has received from his comments on transgender athletes playing girls sports — including from within his hometown of Salem — in a recent New York Times article is proof that segments of the Democratic party are "out of touch with everyday Americans" because of their unwillingness to have conversations that may offend people.

Moulton drew the ire of some within his party — including protests outside of his annual Veterans Town Hall in Marblehead on Monday and a reported call from a Tufts University political science professor to have students boycott interning at his office and for his campaign — after he used a personal view that he did not want his two daughters getting "run over" on an athletic field by a "male or formerly male athlete" to illustrate a bigger hurdle he said the Democratic party faces in relating to what he called "everyday Americans."

He said in the article that "as a Democrat, I'm supposed to be afraid to say that."

He has since defended the statement in a response on his Facebook page where he said: "Sadly, too many fellow Democrats feel like there isn't a place within our party for them to say certain things out loud even when it's a reasonable, majority opinion in our country."

He also cited presidential exit polls during a WGBH-FM radio interview that he said showed a $30 million Republican advertising blitz criticizing Kamala Harris for championing publicly-funded transgender surgeries for prisoners shown during NFL games in the weeks leading up to the election were effective in that "it was the No. 1 issue issue for the why swing voters voted for Trump."

"I am not going to apologize for bringing up the issue," he told The Jim Braude and Margery Eagan program. "This is the problem with Democrats. We're more concerned about offending people than actually talking about the issues."

Moulton said in his Facebook response that one reason for Trump's victory against Harris was that "our party has no problem preaching down to those who we disagree with, but a serious problem having real, honest conversations about tough issues."

He said he shared several examples of that with the New York Times and that the authors opted to go with the transgender athlete reference that he allowed was "my authentic concerns about transgender women participating in competitive athletics.

"Unfortunately, the backlash has only served to reinforce my original point."

Critics have charged that statements like those of Moulton serve to further marginalize a transgender community that is already among the most vulnerable in society to hate, bias, depression, self-harm and suicide.

Moulton said that he has appreciated the leaders within the LGBTQ+ community who have "offered thoughtful, constructive feedback" even while being critical.

But he said he has also heard from many Democrats who do agree with him and "feel like there isn't a place within our party for them to say certain things out loud — even when it's a reasonable, majority opinion in our country."

"These are the people whose trust and confidence we need to win back if we want to become a party that is victorious, not just sanctimonious."

Those criticisms apparently extended to Salem officials during the WGBH-FM interview.

"Your local mayor and School Committee shut you down and denounce you," he said, "as opposed to picking up the phone and having a conversation. Or maybe even taking a bolder step and saying: 'Let's have a forum about this. Let's decide what would make sense. Let's hear from other people in the community.'

"Because I can tell you that the vast majority of people agree with me on this."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)