Ohio Democrats Amy Acton and Marcy Kaptur have both retreated from pro-trans positions ahead of November, leaving transgender Ohioans and LGBTQ+ activists feeling abandoned. When politicians frame trans girls as boys to avoid difficult headlines, the cost is not just votes. It is the harm done to the children who hear those words and wonder whether they matter.

What actually happened

Amy Acton is the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio. She had attended Pride events in June. Then, in a newspaper statement, she said she "doesn't support boys playing in girls' sports." That sentence, so carefully constructed to sound reasonable, carries a specific and damaging claim inside it: that trans girls are boys. Acton had not previously spoken publicly on trans issues, so this was not a reversal of a stated position. It was a first statement, and she chose that.

Meanwhile, Marcy Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat with a long record of voting for LGBTQ+ protections, voted in May for House Resolution 2616. That is a bill that would require schools to get parental permission before using a child's preferred name or pronouns, before allowing them to use a bathroom that matches their gender identity, and would strip federal funding from schools that "teach or advance concepts related to gender ideology." Opponents call it a "Don't Say Trans" bill. Eight Democrats voted for it. Kaptur was one of them.

NV Gay, a transgender activist in Columbus who wrote a critical op-ed in the Buckeye Flame about Acton, put it simply: "I think the effects of her words are extremely damaging to the trans girls out there who are wanting to just be themselves." That is the part I keep coming back to. Not the politics. The trans girls who just want to be themselves, hearing a Democratic candidate for governor tell them, in effect, that they are not who they know they are.

The calculation Democrats are making

I understand the calculation. I do not agree with it, but I understand it. Democrats lost badly in 2024. In Ohio, Republicans ran relentless TV ads attacking Sherrod Brown for his history of supporting LGBTQ+ rights. Brown eventually responded with his own ad, saying the attacks were false and that these issues should be left to local athletic officials. He lost by three points anyway. So now the Democratic Party is asking itself: was it the trans stuff? Should we back off?

Ken Schneck, the editor of the Buckeye Flame, described the logic clearly. "What we've heard from various elected officials is, if you're going to try to get a statewide electorate, you're going to have to make some compromises," he said. "But that comes at a cost at the hands of LGBTQ voters."

What I notice is that the Republicans attacking Kaptur have already said they plan to use her old record regardless of her new positions. So she votes against trans kids, alienates the people who believed in her, and the Republican attack ads run anyway. That is not a strategy. That is just harm without gain.

Trans girls are girls

The Ohio Democratic Party's Pride Caucus said it plainly on 2 July: "There are no boys in girls' sports. Trans girls are girls." That is the statement I would want every Democrat in Ohio to be able to make without hesitation, because it is simply true. It is not a policy position presented as a values statement. It is a fact about who trans girls are.

NV Gay also made a fair point: Acton could have simply said she would enforce existing laws, even if she personally had reservations. That would have been cautious, but it would not have required her to tell trans girls they are something other than what they are. Instead, she chose a framing that is indistinguishable from the Republican attack lines. The Ohio Democratic Party's Progressive Caucus issued a statement saying as much, then deleted it, which tells you everything about the internal pressure these candidates are navigating.

What abandonment costs

There is a particular cruelty to being abandoned by the people who showed up to your Pride events. It is not the same as being attacked by an opponent. When a Republican says trans girls are boys, trans people are not surprised; it is painful, but it is expected. When a Democrat says it, or implies it, it lands differently. It says: we will use you when it is convenient, and we will leave you when it is not.

Trans people in Ohio are not a voting bloc to be managed. They are people with lives, families, jobs, and a very reasonable expectation that the politicians who marched with them in June will not describe them inaccurately in July. Trans young people in particular are watching this. They are watching adult politicians decide, out loud, that their existence is a liability.

I have spent years listening to trans people describe the moments when they realised the world did not have room for them. Not the dramatic moments, the quiet ones: a teacher who changed the subject, a family member who went silent, a politician who said the wrong word and moved on. Those moments accumulate. They do lasting damage. And what Acton said, and what Kaptur voted for, are exactly that kind of moment, except delivered at scale.

What good politics would look like

Kaptur said in her statement that every child deserves "dignity, respect, and compassion." I would like to believe she means it. If she does, the bill she voted for is not consistent with those words. Requiring schools to out trans children to their parents, stripping funding from schools that mention gender identity: that is not dignity. That is exposure and erasure presented as parental rights.

The stronger political move, and the right one, is to say clearly that trans people are who they say they are, that trans girls compete in girls' sports, that trans kids deserve the same protection as every other child, and that any politician who says otherwise is wrong. Not to score points. Because it is true, and because the people affected by these words are real.

If there is a news story you would like me to cover then just let Sammy know.

Dr Helen Webberley is a Gender Specialist, Medical Educator, writer, and advocate, and the founder of GenderGP. She writes about gender diversity, trans healthcare, and the lives of trans people and their families.