Vulnerable Ohio Democrat's last-minute flip-flop on trans insanity has LGBT activists crying



Despite early recognition that their party's obsession with gender ideology contributed to its humiliating electoral losses in 2024, Democrats have largely spent the past two years draped in the LGBT flag, defending so-called "gender-affirming care" and cross-dressing men in women's sports.

With the midterm election just weeks away, Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio has joined other vulnerable Democrats in changing her tune on trans extremism.

'Your words create deep emotional harm.'

Kaptur was long a darling of the LGBT advocacy group Human Rights Campaign and like-minded activists. After all, she co-sponsored legislation that would prohibit public accommodations and federally funded programs from discriminating on the basis of so-called "gender identity" and voted in opposition to the Department of War's ban on military "dudes in dresses."

The congresswoman has, however, signaled a new approach in recent ads.

In one ad titled "Say No," Kaptur noted that she has "said no to gender ideology in schools." In a second ad pushed online late last month, she stated, "I voted with Republicans to keep transgender ideology out of our schools."

In both instances, she was referring to how she voted with Republicans in May to pass the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act, which would require public elementary schools to obtain parental consent before changing a kid's pronouns or sex-based accommodations.

According to Blaze News' Poll Watch, Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in congressional history, is currently neck and neck with Republican Derek Merrin, whom she beat by only a few thousand votes in 2024.

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Kaptur's late-stage flip-flop has, of course, enraged the usual suspects.

Upon seeing one of Kaptur's ads, Erin Reed, the romantic partner of cross-dressing Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D), wrote, "This is getting out of control," adding, "Do NOT vote for anti-transgender Democrats."

Former Kaptur intern Nick Fulton whined in the pages of the Buckeye Flame that "as a 27-year-old working journalist who challenges oppression and interrogates transphobia daily, I am embarrassed at Rep. Kaptur’s name on my resume. So much so that I removed it."

"Rep. Kaptur might win over some far-right transphobes with this ad, but she is losing her integrity — and every queer voter who thought that her democratic membership meant allyship," added Fulton.

The non-straight advocacy group Equality Ohio slapped Kaptur with a D-grade, noting that while she at one time "earned a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign," she "recently released anti-trans ads."

Lucas County Stonewall Democrats published a letter on Sept. 21 demanding that Kaptur take down her "transphobic ad" immediately, stating, "Not only do your words create deep emotional harm and place an unnecessary spotlight on our Trans community members, putting them in more danger than they already are given the current climate, but you have also now engaged in a race to the bottom with Republicans."

The Christopher Steele Project, a trans advocacy group, whined, "We can want Democrats to win and secure a Democratic majority while also recognizing that the queer community’s organized political power does not have to fund the first Democrats willing to abandon us."

Alienating her radical base may not have been worthwhile since Republicans have already framed Kaptur's about-face as little more than naked election-time opportunism.

Her opponent, Derek Merrin, said at his rally with President Donald Trump on Saturday, "Marcy Kaptur is desperate to hold onto power. She is resorting to the typical career politician handbook: slander your opponent, distort the facts, and hope voters don't check the record."

"Marcy Kaptur is claiming that she no longer wants men to be able to play in women's sports," said Merrin. "The problem is she's voted two times against a bill that would have prohibited that practice. She's also co-sponsored six times the radical Equality Act that would allow men to play women's sports and allow men into women's locker rooms."

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Zach Bannon told Fox News Digital, "Lies from desperate Democrat Marcy Kaptur can't erase her radical record. Kaptur is in damage control, and she must remove herself as a co-sponsor of the Equality Act and disavow her previous votes or remove her lies from the airwaves."

Kaptur's change in messaging strategy comes months after Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton (D) was downgraded by Equality Ohio after she claimed that she does "not support boys playing in girls' sports"; weeks after Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico of Texas walked back his support for men in girls' sports "if it risks safety or fairness"; and days after North Carolina Rep. Don Davis (D) released a commercial in which he states that "there should always be a safe and fair space for women and girls in sports."

Pew Research Center surveys found last year that:

  • 73% of Americans are uncomfortable with trans-identifying athletes competing against members of the opposite sex;
  • 66% favored requiring athletes to compete against members of their sex;
  • 56% support making it illegal for health care professionals to provide minors with "medical care for a gender transition";
  • 49% support requiring trans-identifying people to use public bathrooms that match their sex; and
  • 47% favor or strongly favor making it illegal for public schools to push gender ideology in elementary schools.

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The kids are all right: Identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual in 'free fall' among teens, CDC data analyst says



LGBT activists' moment in the sun appears to be at an end.

Public opinion has, for instance, soured on permitting cross-dressing men in women's sports and bathrooms; on the provision of sex-rejection mutilation surgeries and puberty blockers to minors; and on the promotion of gender ideology in schools. Public support is also slipping for homosexual "marriage."

'Groomers hardest hit.'

Major corporations have pumped the brakes on the rainbow flag and supporting LGBT indoctrination initiatives and events — or have at the very least felt the need to pretend they would.

It appears that LGBT activists are now also losing their grip on future generations. New data from the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System reveals a dramatic decline in non-straight identification among high school-age Americans.

According to an analysis of the CDC data by San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge, the number of LGB-identifying students "plummeted" in 2025.

Whereas, for instance, CDC data showed that 17% of 9th-graders — Americans ages 14 and 15 — identified as non-straight in 2023, that number fell to 11% last year. There were also declines in non-straight identification in other grades, especially among 10th-graders.

There was also decline for 12th-graders, but only two percentage points, from 18% to 16%.

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The psychology professor highlighted that this "free fall" was driven almost entirely by teenage girls, which makes sense given that the LGBT social contagion that was dismissed and/or downplayed in recent years by so-called experts predominantly impacted girls.

"Identifying as LGB dropped from 27% in 2023 to 22% in 2025 among girls and from 9% to 7% among boys," Twenge noted. "The previous increase in identifying as LGB was also larger among girls, with a 128% increase (more than doubling) from 2015 to 2021 among girls and a 99% increase (doubling) from 2015 to 2023 among boys."

Twenge noted that the greatest decline was observed among 9th-grade girls. Whereas 30% of the cohort identified as non-straight in 2021, the number had fallen to 17% last year.

Part of this decline in LGB identification among teenage girls can be attributed to the collapse of the "bisexual" fad. Last year, only 13% of 9th-grade girls identified as "bisexual" — down from 26% in 2021.

"The sharp turn downward in identifying (and acting) as LGB among Gen Alpha teens could be a harbinger of a coming wave of change, or it could be a blip — it’s hard to say," wrote Twenge.

Mary Rice Hasson, director of the Person and Identity Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, tweeted: "Looks like people aren't 'born that way.'"

Todd Erzen, the co-host of BlazeTV's "Steve Deace Show," said in response to the decline in teenage LGB identification, "Groomers hardest hit."

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Smoke and mirrors? These big corporations are still shelling out for LGBT indoctrination



Some of the major corporations that once wrapped themselves in the LGBT flag and embraced racist DEI initiatives have in recent years signaled a change in tack.

It appears that this may have been a pump fake — that normalcy advocates may have been premature in celebrating the apparent return to sanity at Ford Motor Company, Molson Coors, Target, and T-Mobile.

'Companies should consider whether their support aligns with issues that unite rather than divide their customers, employees, and shareholders.'

The 1792 Exchange, a corporate bias watchdog seeking to restore political neutrality in the boardroom and to educate lawmakers about the dangers of woke corporate policies, has been tracking various businesses' DEI commitments, participation in the LGBTQ activist organization Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, and their nonbusiness activities — particularly those with an ideological bent.

For example, Ford signaled in 2024 that it would be undergoing some reform on the woke front.

Ford CEO Jim Farley noted in an August 2024 memo obtained by normalcy advocate Robby Starbuck that the automotive company would: focus on taking care of its customers and employees as opposed to "publicly commenting on the polarizing issues of the day"; end its participation in the HRC's Corporate Equality Index; and ensure that its policies and practices "drive business results."

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The watchdog also highlighted how:

  • T-Mobile announced in a July 2025 letter to the Federal Communications Commission that it was dissolving its DEI roles and corresponding initiatives and instead partnering with "third party suppliers, community groups, and other organizations ... to advance our core business objectives";
  • Target announced that it would cease participation in the Corporate Equality Index, "further evaluate corporate partnerships to ensure they are directly connected to [the company's] roadmap for growth," and end its DEI goals; and
  • Molson Coors signaled in September 2024 that it would cease participation in the CEI and end DEI-based training programs and donations to divisive events.

Allen Mendenhall, a senior adviser for the Heritage Foundation's American Investor Initiative, told the Daily Signal in June that these changes were part of a broader "market correction and a cultural correction."

"Businesses are increasingly rejecting pressure from activist investors and corporate bureaucracies in favor of listening to consumers and respecting longstanding moral and religious convictions," continued Mendenhall. "Top-down cultural engineering is losing its grip."

The 1792 Exchange pointed out a month ago that some of these supposedly reformed corporations haven't lost their woke reflexes.

Target, for instance, was listed this year as a platinum sponsor of New York City Pride, a supposed "carnival-style celebration for LGBTQIA+ youth, their families, and allies." The stated aim of this year's parade was to "empower and educate queer youth with a variety of queer- and gender-affirming resources and activities."

This included a political rally "to demand protections for trans and queer youth."

This year, Target was also listed as a sponsor on numerous other LGBT activist events, including Jersey Pride, LA! Pride in Los Angeles; Utah Pride in Salt Lake City; Pride Houston 365 in Texas; and San Francisco Pride.

Through its Vizzy Hard Seltzer brand, Molson Coors was named a "silver sponsor" of Jersey Pride, a "diamond partner" of Miami Beach Pride, and a presenting sponsor of Denver Pride, where anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement signage was visible in the parade.

T-Mobile is also still backing LGBT activist events. T-Mobile Fiber is listed both as a gold-level sponsor of Phoenix Pride's Rainbows Festival and as a bronze-level sponsor of Capital City Pride in Des Moines, Iowa. Metro by T-Mobile is listed as a sponsor for this year's Philly Pride 365.

Children appear to have been present at these events despite the heavy sexual themes and imagery.

Ford, Molson Coors, Target, and T-Mobile did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News by deadline.

The 1792 Exchange noted that "publicly traded companies have a fiduciary responsibility to create long-term value for shareholders while remaining consistent with their publicly stated commitments and corporate values. When engaging in charitable giving or corporate sponsorships, companies should consider whether their support aligns with issues that unite rather than divide their customers, employees, and shareholders."

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Gay Atlantic writer whines to Bill Maher that LGBT extremism is blowing up support for homosexual 'marriage'



Popular support for homosexual "marriage" is plummeting — and liberals are beginning to panic.

James Kirchick, a gay liberal contributor to the Atlantic, suggested on Friday's episode of "Real Time with Bill Maher" that this waning popularity is in response to years of LGBT extremism.

'Gay men purchasing babies didn't help.'

A lesbian bar in Massachusetts recently made headlines after it became a target of local LGBT leftist hatred after operators announced on Aug. 31 that they were waiving the establishment's mask requirement just one night a week.

Maher highlighted the LGBT attacks on Greenfield's Last Ditch lesbian bar as yet another example of leftist intolerance. Kirchick said the story also illustrated the "growing divide between gay and lesbian people, and queer people."

"To be gay or lesbian is a sexual orientation. That's it," continued Kirchick. "To be 'queer' is to embrace a whole political orientation. There are straight people who identify as queer. It's about deconstructing gender, which is how you get in that [bar] story a lesbian who uses 'he/him' pronouns."

The Atlantic writer provided an example of the political and conformist nature of those in the "queer" camp, referencing California Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener's apparent excommunication over his lukewarm support for Israel.

When he tried to join the Trans March in June, Wiener — a radical homosexual activist who previously claimed that "the word groomer is categorically an anti-LGBTQ hate word," advanced a law that made California a sanctuary state for child sex-change mutilations, and advocated for exempting some adults who had sex with minors from automatically registering as sex offenders — was told, "You stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel," reported the San Francisco Chronicle.

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"There was a poll done two years ago, and it was a poll of the LGBT community — who identifies as what within the LGBT community," Kirchick told Maher. "About 15% identify as lesbians. About 21% identify as gay. Fifty-six percent identify as bisexual. ... 0.5% of LGBT people identify as queer."

Kirchick unironically asked, "Why are we allowing this 0.5% of the community to speak for all of us?"

"All this queer, trans extremism is having a real impact," he continued. "I mean, support for gay marriage has started going down."

According to a Gallup poll conducted in May, support for homosexual "marriage" is down six percentage points from the peak in 2022 and 2023.

The percentage of U.S. adults who said that same-sex "marriages" should be valid rose from 27% in 1996 to 71% in 2022, where it remained for another year. In 2024, however, the percentage dropped to 69%, and it has been declining in the years since.

The percentage of U.S. adults who say that gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable has similarly begun to decline, dropping from 71% in 2022 to 62% this year.

The decline has largely been driven by changing attitudes among Republicans. Whereas 55% of Republicans said that they favored homosexual "marriage" in 2021 and 2022, the number is now 37%.

The liberal writer speculated that this decline in support is a "backlash to this queer extremism. And as a gay man, it's something I really worry about, frankly."

Katy Faust, founder and president of children's advocacy group Them Before Us, said in response to Kirchick's observation, "Queer definitely poisoned the well. But gay men purchasing babies didn't help."

Kirchick is hardly the only liberal concerned about declining support for homosexual "marriage."

Andrew Sullivan, an LGBT activist who has written for the New York Times, wrote in a July blog post, "On all questions gay and trans, the Dems are now entirely controlled by trans and 'queer' extremists."

Referencing the recent Gallup data, Sullivan added, "As someone who played a part in bringing those Republicans and moderates around to gay marriage, it’s distressing to see what the queer overreach has done — especially in red states."

Last month, Log Cabin Republicans dropped the "T" from its LGBT advocacy, recognizing the reputational damage that trans-radicals have done to the cause of their fellow non-straight activists.

Ross Hemminger, the president of the Log Cabin Republicans, argued that support for homosexual "marriage" is waning because many voters' "view of the gay community is based on today’s radical transgender activists with their unnecessary and discomfiting focus on America’s youth."

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