Ghosts beyond the borders

As the 2026 US midterm elections approach, I have noticed a truly bizarre claim being made on Bluesky. I don't usually want to talk about American politics. I am Australian, after all. Contrary to popular opinion on the internet we are in fact a full-fledged nation of our very own, and have bigger concerns than marsupials and emu wars to deal with. We do not, by and large, have time for Americans and their bullshit.

However, I am also a trans woman, and as such I tend to care about the politics of trans rights even when they occur outside the borders of my own country. That's particularly of concern for me because the two nations that have historically been our closest allies – the United States and the United Kingdom – have both become extremely hostile to transgender people, in a way that simply has no analog in Australia. I worry for the safety of my trans siblings in those countries. It is very grim right now.

With that in mind, I feel a need to comment on a claim I have seen American liberals pushing over and over again, always asserted with extreme confidence and yet presented without evidence. I don't want to single out any specific person, so instead I'll paraphrase. Roughly speaking, the claim is this:

The US Democratic Party might be flawed, but it is the most supportive political party for transgender rights anywhere on the planet.

This claim is not made in a vacuum, and it's certainly never asserted during an argument with conservatives. On the contrary, this claim only ever made in response to trangender people who have the temerity to point out the open transphobia that is being embraced by a large proportion of Democratic politicians. To put it bluntly, this claim serves as a kind of "shut the fuck up tranny, or it will get worse for you" warning. Fall in line, do not criticise the beloved party, and vote for the lesser transphobe.

This argument might be persuasive to those Americans who seem to think that nothing exists outside their borders but ghosts and barbarians, but it falls rather flat to those of us who live in these strange ghostlands and have direct personal experience with the political parties that operate here.

With that in mind, I have a few remarks to make on the comparison between transgender rights in the Australian political context and the American one. Because I really do need Americans to understand that the US Democrats emphatically not the best political party on the planet when it comes to trans inclusion, and this claim is a blatant lie.

The status quo in Australia

Because apparently (sighs) I cannot assume that Americans know anything about how transgender rights are handled in other countries, I'll start with a brief primer on the status of trans rights in Australia in 2026. Here is a lightning quick summary:

Every state and territory now supports self-id laws for legal recognition of trans people. We can update our birth certificates, passports, and drivers license without need for medical gatekeeping. This process started around 2013 when the federal government updated passport laws, with automatic flow-through to drivers licences at the state level. Birth certificate reform took place piecewise, with South Australia removing most of the gatekeeping around 2017, and New South Wales finally coming on board in 2025.
At the federal level there have been explicit legal anti-discrimination laws since 2013 when gender identity provisions were added to the Sex Discrimination Act. State-level protections are a little more patchwork, but generally okay in most places. The federal laws were tested at the Federal Court level quite recently, and were upheld by the courts.
Access to medical care for those who need it is generally good for adult trans people. With the legal changes to documentation laws over the last decade, you no longer have to do the creepy psychiatrist interview that I did back in the day, and there are a variety of options. Annoyingly it's still not covered by Medicare, but some of our political parties are pushing for that now.
The rights of trans kids are a little more mixed. In most states and territories the government doesn't try to intervene in this area, and it is essentially considered a matter for the family and the doctors to resolve. Queensland (which has a conservative LNP government) is the standout exception: the government there is very hostile to trans rights and have blocked access.
Other aspects to trans inclusion are more mixed. Prison accommodations generally avoid the horrific scenario of placing trans women in men's prisons, but the Northern Territory is a ghastly exception on that. Usually though it's considered a "decide on a case-by-case basis" thing.
Sporting inclusion is handled at the level of the sporting body in question, not the government. The Sex Discrimination Act has a carve out that permits sporting bodies to make their own decisions, but they're not allowed to do so on arbitrary grounds: you cannot exclude trans women because you don't like us, you need to have a clear basis for it in terms of physical differences. And in any case, it's only really at the professional level that this ever comes up. Community sports are very chill about it.
There are of course no bathroom bans anywhere in the country. We aren't savages.

That will do as a very basic primer. It's not a paradise for trans folks here, and I'll be honest and admit that there are a lot of worrying signs. The anti-trans movement that hit the UK and the US a decade ago is starting to take root here too, and I fear that it will get worse for us. But right now, the laws protecting transgender people in Australia are far better than those in the US and the UK. It is not even close.

What political parties do we have in Australia?

As things stand in Australia, there are four parties of consequence. Again, because I cannot rely on Americans knowing anything about my country, here is a quick primer. First, there are the two major parties:

The Australian Labor Party (aka ALP): These are our milquetoast moderates. Historically a centre-left party that grew out of the Union movement, the ALP is now a centrist party. In 2026, the ALP holds government federally, and in most states and territories.
The Coalition (aka LNP): The Coalition is a semi-permanent amalgamation of the Liberal Party and the National Party. Although technically comprised of several parties, it's easier to think of them as one unit. They are our centre-right party: they're an uncomfortable mix of religious conservatives and the "socially liberal but economically right wing" crowd. They hold government in Queensland and the Northern Territory, and in both those governments the conservative wing is ascendant.

However, although Australian politics has historically been a two-party system, that's been starting to break down over the last 15 years, and because our elections don't use the "first past the post" system that both the US and UK use, there are two other parties that have genuine influence:

The Greens: The Greens are a minor party who stably get between 10% and 15% of the vote. They grew out of the environmental movement but are now a more broadly leftist party. They never hold government in their own right but their vote share is large enough that they often hold the balance of power in the Senate. This is currently the case federally.
One Nation: This is our far right party, very similar to UK Reform. They've never held government anywhere and until very recently were considered the lunatic fringe. I still think they're lunatics, but they're no longer the fringe, and have become a genuine electoral threat in the last 12 months. It's quite scary.

There are numerous other parties besides these four, but to be charitable to the "US Democrats are the most trans-supportive party on earth" claim, I'll restrict my comments only to the four parties that have real power in Australia.

Comparison to the US Democrats

Okay, so let's do the comparison to the US Democrats, shall we? I'll start with the two easy cases...

The minor parties

The Democrats are much more trans-friendly than One Nation. But that's a low bar: One Nation wants to ban trans people from pretty much everything. They're almost as vile as the US Republicans. So yes, that one counts as a win for the Democrats, but personally I wouldn't consider it much of a victory to note that the "leftist" party in the US is indeed more progressive than the most conservative party in Australia.
The Greens, however, are light-years ahead of the US Democrats. Transphobic politicans don't survive in the Greens anymore: the party platform is unequivocally supportive of trans rights across every possible area. On documentation, bathrooms, health care, discrimination laws, sports, everything. On any policy area you might care to name, the Greens are at least as pro-trans as the US Democrats, and usually noticeably more supportive. So, that's a clear loss for the Democrats.

Taking the claim literally, then, it's already defeated. The Australian Greens are currently holding the balance of power in Australian federal politics, and they're using that to push for the kind of trans-inclusive policies that the US Democrats would never even dare to promote. Government-subsidised gender affirming care under a single-payer healthcare system? Not going to happen in America.

The major parties: LNP

But okay, let's pretend that the claim being made by American liberals on Bluesky was a bit less extreme. Suppose that instead of claiming that the Democrats were the most pro-trans political party anywhere on the planet, the claim was weakened: perhaps the intention is only to compare Democrats to major parties. The Greens, despite having genuine political power in Australia via balance-of-power considerations, are not a major party.

So perhaps the required comparison is between the Dems and the two Australian majors, the ALP and the LNP. Let's do that then, shall we? I'll start with the LNP.

The LNP are uneven on transgender rights, because they are split between a faction ("the moderates") that would prefer to talk about economic issues, and another faction ("the hardliners") that loves culture wars. Depending on which faction is in ascendance, the LNP are either worse than the US Dems, or about the same. For instance, in Queensland where the hardliners currently hold government at the state level, they've taken steps backwards, banning access to puberty blockers for trans kids. That's clearly worse than the US Dems, no question.

But it's not always that bad. In NSW and Victoria, the LNP have been trying to court moderate voters and have been trying to push the transphobes out because they don't see it as a way to win seats in Sydney and Melbourne. In neither case do they want to start pushing the kind of anti-trans rhetoric that Democrats like Talarico and Newsom have been spouting: all that blah blah biOloGiCal mALes iN sPorTs stuff is not popular with the leadership in NSW LNP or Vic LNP right now.

Overall, then, the Australian LNP has one strong qualitative similarity with the US Democrats: it is riven with internal tensions over whether they want to support transgender rights or not. But there is also a difference: the anti-trans hardliners are the ascendant faction in most places, no question. That isn't really the case for the US Dems. There are lots of Democrats who truly do support trans people, and that's pretty rare in the LNP.

Count this as a win for the US Democrats but... not by as much as you'd hope. It's never a good sign when your "progressive" party is only barely winning out over the Australian centre-right.

The major parties: ALP

At last we come to the most natural head-to-head comparison, the Australan Labor Party versus the US Democrats. And unfortunately for American liberals (and to some extent for me too, because I don't love praising the ALP), this is a lay-down misère victory for Labor on transgender rights. Firstly, if you recall that "status quo" summary I provided at the start, something that would be a fever-dream kind of wishlist for my long-suffering American trans siblings, every single one of those things was introduced by the Labor party. There is simply no analogous list of accomplishments on the other side of the Pacific ocean: the US Democrats have certainly introduced some modest improvements in the rights of trans people, but none of it gets even remotely close to the accomplishments of the ALP on that front.

You can try to claim that many Democrats talk a very supportive game, sure, but the ALP simply has to point to the scoreboard to put lie to the claim that the Dems are better. The ALP has a solid track record of walking the walk, not just saying pretty things on the campaign trail. They have had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do so, under pressure from the Greens and from trans activists who have been perfectly willing to hold Labor's feet to the fire on this topic. But reluctant allies or not, they have got the job done. The Democrats have no such track record, sorry.

It is not even a close comparison. The Democrats are less supportive of trans people than the ALP, who have used their power in government to actively support us in a way that the Democrats never have. It is a lie to claim that the US Democrats are the most trans-supportive party in the world. I cannot put it more plainly than that. It is a lie.

Some nuance, at long last

Up to this point in the post I've focused pretty tightly on the core claim, trying my best to really make it sink in that no, on the whole the US Democratic party is not a very progressive organisation when it comes to transgender inclusion. In Australian politics they'd come in third, at best. So we can dispense with that ludicrous idea now.

Having done so, it's worth adding a little more nuance to this. Most of the anger that transgender folks in the US have towards the Democrats is directed at a particular "archetype" of the Democratic moderates. Everyone knows the type:

Openly supports banning trans women from women's sports
Expresses "reasonable concerns" regarding bathroom access
Expresses "reasonable concerns" regarding trans kids health care
Expresses "reasonable concerns" about prison accommodation
Is otherwise silent on transgender issues
Still claims to be a progressive

I'm loathe to make this post a referendum on any specific US Democratic politician, but it's probably fair to say that anyone reading the post can think of several Democrats who behave this way. In almost all cases their behaviour scans as inauthentic: they're not necessarily doing this out of sincere personal bigotry, but because they want to court the swinging bigot vote and are perfectly willing to sacrifice the transgender vote on the grounds that they're pretty certain there are more transphobic bigots in the voting pool than there are transgender people.

Watching from afar as the US midterms approach, it is very noticeable that the Democrats have quite a few candidates like this. Like, there are a lot of them. They're not so common as to be the absolute majority of Democratic candidates but dear lord they're everywhere. It's awful.

A natural question follows, if we're going to compare the Democrats to Labor. Does the ALP have anyone like that? And the answer is... yes, there's one guy like that: Chris fucking Minns, the current Premier of New South Wales. He is a dick. I won't get into his politics on other topics other than transgender issues, because this post is very deliberately focused only on that topic, but suffice it to say I do not like him. He's been quite open about supporting transphobic policies in a number of areas, most notably sports. It's very unusual for a Labor politician to talk like this, but Minns is... honestly I hate that guy.

If you wanted to look for an Australian politician affiliated with a nominally-left-of-centre party (though Minns himself belongs to the NSW Right faction, long story) whose behaviour toward transgender folks might be analogous to Talarico, Newsom, etc, without question the guy you'd latch onto is Chris Minns.

But... here's the thing. As deeply as I hate Minns, and think he's dangerous for transgender people in NSW, his government has passed meaningful and substantive reforms in support of trans rights. Most notably, under considerable pressure from people like Alex Greenwich (quick summary: leftist, independent, gay) his government finally passed a watered down version of the Equality Act legislation in NSW that at long last brought NSW in line with the rest of the country on birth certificate reforms. As much of a dick as he is, and as much as I do not trust him in the slightest, the fact remains that Minns has a track record of actually doing the right thing when put under pressure from leftists.

This matters.

Epilogue

The comparison between the ALP and the US Democrats is instructive, in my opinion, and goes some distance towards explaining why I am so irritated at American liberals who keep pushing the false claim that the US Democrats are the most progressive party on earth for trans rights. Not only is this claim false, but the reason that it is false in the Australian context is that the Australian left and Australian trans people have fought tooth and nail to punish the Labor party any time they start trying to backslide on this topic. The Labor party genuinely does not want to support trans people (frankly I think they'd prefer to be bigots), they have been nudged into it by the exact group of people you are criticising. Every time someone makes this absurd argument on Bluesky, is is deployed as a mechanism to force American leftists and American trans people to shut up and toe the party line. I think it is a loser of an idea. As I tried to talk about in the "lesser transphobe" post, this does not strike me as a good strategy for trans people to follow.

If you do not hold your "moderate" politicians feet to the fire, if you are not willing to punish them electorally for playing footsie with bigots under the table, they will inevitably drift farther to the right. This is what has happened on trans rights in both the US and the UK, and it has been catastrophically bad for transgender people in both nations. Telling lies about how wonderfully supportive the Democrats are is not helpful, and I really wish you'd cut that shit out. It's fucking annoying.