Transphobia Doesn't Ruin Elections, But It Can Still Ruin Lives

Zohran’s victory is a triumph for the people of NYC, especially trans people.  Outside of the city, that triumph is mostly symbolic. 

By Jane Migliara Brigham

Last night, three major elections were won by Democrats, all running against candidates who sought to use bigotry to scare voters into voting against said Democrat. 

Notably, New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani won while putting support for trans (and even transsexual) rights at the forefront of his messaging.  His championing of our people’s rights goes beyond what even the one Transsexual in congress (Sarah McBride) is willing to do for us.

This has led to a wave of optimism about the future of trans rights and dignity in the United States that I have not seen matched in many years.  The last time I remember joy like this was when Trump was voted out of office in 2020.

I think the optimism about trans dignity in politics is premature.

This election wasn't about trans rights, no matter what Republicans like Virginia gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears wished it to be.  It was about government shutdowns and ICE kidnappings and SNAP benefits and a referendum on Trump as a person.  This wasn't about us.  The American electorate has a completely different set of priorities than my friends who are looking to stockpile hormones and who are wondering if they should flee the country.

For reference, I live just outside of NYC, a major destination for transsexuals and other outcasts from Middle America, driven from their homes by the rising tide of bigotry.  Every time I show up to a trans-led event, I get introduced to the latest internal refugee, typically a trans woman from some godforsaken backwater with a backstory that sounds like a horror movie.  

If transphobia was on its way out, these waves of huddled masses would not still be streaming into our cities with nothing left to lose.

Transphobia isn't dead, it just didn't make it onto the ballot this year.  We have to grapple with that.

Just because this election year wasn't about transphobia, doesn't mean that transphobia isn't still a factor in our politics.  It might not show up at the ballot box, but it is a constant force in the lives of trans people.

To understand transphobia as a fact of life, you have to look at our lives directly, and what it has done to us.  That is why I am less concerned about how transphobia makes cis people vote at the ballot box, and more with how it makes trans people vote with their feet.

In this regard, today is no different than yesterday.

I still think some good will come of last night’s elections.  

First and most importantly, Zohran will make an excellent mayor, especially where trans rights are concerned.  He will enter politics as the most pro-trans politician in the country.  On this issue, his rhetoric and platform are the best of any candidate in my lifetime.  If all of what he wants to do for us is implemented, and it is not sabotaged by transphobes at the state and federal level, New York City might come out of this wave of fascism as the best place in the world for the Transsexual People.

Secondly, the idea that Democrats have to denounce trans rights to be taken seriously by moderates has been thoroughly debunked.  Maybe Dems will take Zohran’s messaging on the issue as a model for the future? 

On the other hand, Zohran, the champion of the oppressed, and the man whom trans people across the world have placed their hopes upon, won his race by almost half the margin of the gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia, both of whom generally avoided issues of minority rights.  

Virginia Governor-Elect Spanberger won by 15 points, and New Jersey Governor-Elect Sherrill won by 13 points.

By contract, Mayor-Elect Mamdani won by 9 points, barely getting a majority in a three-way race. If it had been a two person race, and Sliwa was not taking republican votes from Cuomo, the election would've been a nail biter.

This is all despite the fact that exit polls show that 14% of NYC voters were queer, and that Mamdani won 82% of their votes.  By contrast, the majority of cishet voters voted for candidates other than Mamdani, none of whom had an interest in furthering trans dignity. If queer voters were not counted, and they had not been mobilized on behalf of a campaign that spoke directly to their interests, Mamdani probably would have lost the election.

His entire margin- his victory itself- is explained by the queer and trans people who voted for him.

There are two conclusions we can draw from this.  The more cynical one is that the trans assimilationists have a point when they say that the (cis) American electorate is too bigoted to support our interests directly.  

Whether or not this is true, I still believe that a full-throated defense of trans dignity is the right call; not for pragmatic reasons, but because it is morally correct.  Since the interests of the Transsexual People are more important to me than those of American voters at large, I will always appreciate when a candidate fights on our behalf.

The slightly less cynical point is that these results show that the voter base of NYC is substantially different from that of the rest of the country.  

The reason that 14% of the voters there are queer is not because the city produces more queer people than the rest of the country.  As mentioned earlier, it is because queer people (and transsexuals in particular) are consistently driven from their homes and towards the few places that will let us live in (relative) peace, the most prominent example being New York City.

In this light, the success of a man like Zohran has less to do with his (excellent) qualities as a politician, orator, and as a person.  Rather, it has more to do with the unique electorate of a city full of people who live there because they are outcasts from wherever they are from, whether as queers from Middle America, or as immigrants from across the world.

Zohran is an outlier in American politics because NYC is an outlier in American society.

If both these conclusions are true, then Zohran and his style of politics might not be transferable to the rest of the country, at least not yet.  This would explain the failure of similar progressive candidates in elections last night, such as Omar Fateh in Minneapolis, and many more.

Zohran’s victory is a triumph for the people of NYC, especially trans people.  Outside of the city, that triumph is mostly symbolic.  

I desperately want to be proven wrong about this.  I would love it if the style of politics exemplified by Zohran Mamdani were proven to be viable in the places where most transsexuals live.  I just don’t see the evidence for that, at least not yet.

Until that changes, we will have to go on doing what we have always done.  Trans liberation isn't going to come from a ballot box filled with cis votes.  It is going to come from the actions of trans people working together for our own interests.  

Once again, today is no different than yesterday.

[Edit - 12 November, 2025]

The original draft of this article listed Katie Wilson as being among the losers of this election, as her election was called when the article was written. She has since gone on to win the race for Seattle Mayor.

The victory of another leftist candidate alongside Mamdani certainly makes my argument weaker, as it shows more places where their politics can win elections. As with Mamdani's win, this is great.

It should be noted that Seattle plays a similar role to New York City as a queer and immigrant refuge. It is still not indicative of a leftist wave among the non-urban population.