Northeast
Democrats planning to replace Seth Moulton after speaking out against trans athletes
Democrats in Massachusetts are plotting a revolt against House Rep. Seth Moulton after he made multiple statements condemning his party for supporting trans inclusion in women’s sports, according to the Boston Globe.
Salem Democratic City Committee chair Liz Bradt told the Globe that she had heard from “several” people in the area who were considering running against him in Massachusetts’ Sixth District.
“We will find someone to run against him and win,” Bradt said.
Moulton is up for re-election in 2026. But he has been the subject of intense criticism by members in his own state and party since last week, when he spoke out against his party’s stance on trans athletes in women’s and girls’ sports in a New York Times article. Moulton has doubled down on his comments in several interviews since then, inciting more and more backlash from his party members.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) questions Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley during a House Armed Services Committee hearing July 9, 2020, on “Department of Defense Authorities and Roles Related to Civilian Law Enforcement,” in Washington, D.C. (Greg Nash/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Salem city councilor Kyle Davis, who is planning a pro-trans rally outside of Moulton’s office this Sunday, told Fox News Digital that he will actively contribute to another candidate who challenges Moulton, and is even calling for the congressman to resign ahead of 2026.
“I certainly am calling on Seth Moulton to resign and will be supporting any Democrat and LGBT ally that runs against him,” Davis said.
Moulton’s original comments about the subject were rooted in his stance as a father to two daughters. In television interviews with CNN and MSNBC, the Democrat has stood firm and has not made any apologies.
But Moulton also told Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind in an exclusive interview that there are others in the Democrat party who agree with him.
“While a few, a handful, maybe just a couple members of Congress have spoken out against the comments, I’ve got an awful lot more who will go up to me privately and say thank you,” Moulton said.
Moulton also said he welcomes any challengers from within his own party to run against him in 2026.
“It’s a democracy. If you want to run against me, go for it,” Moulton said, but added that it was “not going to be very helpful for winning elections.”
“What we need to do is defeat Republicans, not fellow Democrats.”
Democrats who have previously voted for laws that would enable transgender inclusion in women’s sports have publicly denounced their support for the concept in the weeks leading up to Election Day. They include Texas Reps. Colin Allred and Vicente Gonzalez and Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola.
TRANS VOLLEYBALL PLAYER ACCUSED OF PLAN TO HARM TEAMMATE AFTER TAKING SCHOLARSHIPS FROM FEMALE PLAYERS
Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., also spoke out against trans inclusion in the same New York Times article as Moulton.
The Biden-Harris administration passed a sweeping reform to Title IX in April that aimed to provide more protection for gender identity in schools and universities. It clarified that Title IX’s ban on “sex” discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and “pregnancy or related conditions.”
And while the administration insisted the regulation does not address athletic eligibility, multiple experts presented evidence to Fox News Digital in June that it would ultimately put more biological men in women’s sports.
Democrats have introduced and co-sponsored the Equality Act in congress, which was proposed in 2019 and has had revisions that “would force public schools to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender on girls’ sports teams.”
In March 2023, Democrats advocated for a transgender bill of rights, proposing a resolution “recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights.”
Multiple states have filed lawsuits and enacted their own laws to address this issue, and then the U.S. Supreme Court then voted 5-4 in August to reject an emergency request by the Biden administration to enforce its sweeping Title IX changes in the states trying to prevent it.
But that hasn’t prevented such reforms from happening altogether, thanks to the work of Democrat judges. At the high school level, multiple Obama-era federal judges have passed rulings that allow transgender inclusion in girls sports. Judges Landya McCafferty in New Hampshire and M. Hannah Lauck of Virgina each issued rulings this year that enabled biological males to play on high school girls’ soccer and tennis teams. Both judges were appointed by Obama in the early 2010s.
President Trump has proposed a full-on ban of all trans inclusion in women’s and girls’ sports, and it was a campaign issue that he and other Republicans hammered Democrat opponents on in the recent election, en-route to taking back control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives.
2020 US Democratic Presidential hopeful Representative for Massachusetts’ 6th congressional district Seth Moulton announces he is ending his campaign for the President of The United States during the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting in San Francisco, California on August 23, 2019. (Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)
“People think that this is exactly the kind of debate that we need to have. And it’s not just on trans issues, it’s on the economy. Why are we out of touch with Americans on the economy when Trump’s plan is going to dramatically raise grocery prices? . . . How is it that we’re so out of touch on immigration when we’re the ones who proposed a bipartisan immigration deal?” Moulton said to Fox News Digital.
“It seems like Democrats do have a lot of good solutions for working Americans, and yet we’re really out of touch. So we’ve got to ask ourselves that question. Why have we lost touch with so many people across America?”
Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkin contributed to this report.
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Along the Park
Dear Diary:
It was April Fools’ Day, and the weather kept changing from sunny to drizzle, as if the gusty wind was moving the sun back and forth behind a cloud.
I put my jacket on and off as I walked along Prospect Park. The trees were still bare, but spring was slowly awakening with yellow forsythias, and every child walking by stared at my new purple hair, hungry for color.
A guy in the bike lane yelled, “Hey!”
I turned to him.
“Sorry,” he said, pointing to someone else. “I’m talking to this guy.”
“But you actually look familiar,” I said.
“So do you,” he said, laughing.
I entered the park to hear pop music near the band shell. Two people with a portable speaker were dancing.
I wanted to join the party, but I realized that I hear the music, so I’m in the party. I danced along from a distance.
From high above, hundreds of blackbirds swooped down like falling peppercorn into the black-and-white woods ahead. As I got closer, I saw specks of tiny green buds emerging on each tree limb.
I left the park, passing three people who had converged because their dogs could not contain their joy. The people laughed like old friends, but within seconds they had walked off separate ways.
As I passed Seeley Street, I overheard a friend through the open window, cheering on a drum student.
I laughed. I should be getting home before the possible rain, I thought, but today, everywhere was home.
— Mare Berger
S. Klein’s Basement
Dear Diary:
It was around 1960, and my mother, my sister and I were in the bargain basement at the S. Klein department store on Union Square.
My sister, 13, was trying on winter coats in the aisle between the bins and discussing two final options with my mother when a woman riding the escalator up to the ground floor weighed in.
“Take the red!” she called out.
We took the red. I miss S. Klein’s.
— David Hammond
Brooklyn Warehouse
Dear Diary:
I woke up to my alarm at 2:45 on a Saturday morning, then maneuvered trains and city blocks through darkness to an unremarkable warehouse in Brooklyn.
Inside was a cathedral of music. Hips gyrated, and arms exalted rhythm. Fog embraced kissers, dancers, exhilaration, prayer, meditation, community.
I found my intention and connected with my spirit and the energy of bodies around me, alone and together, holding friends as family and strangers as friends.
I departed at 8:45 a.m. to a cold, golden morning, feeling lighter, freer, learned and loved.
A shopkeeper opening up for the day called out from behind me, his question nearly drowned out by the morning traffic.
“Hey, what’s happening over there?” he asked.
“Just a little dance party,” I replied. “Nothing crazy.”
— Carlie Cattelona
Helping Hand
Dear Diary:
I ride my bicycle 99 percent of the time. It’s just me and the city. I move fast enough to keep things interesting, but slowly enough to catch the weather changing or feel the mood of the people on the sidewalks.
Every so often, I have to take the train. On very rare occasions, it’s me, the train and my bike, a combination no one ever seems thrilled to encounter.
Because I know this, I try to shrink myself into an apologetic bicycle origami project once I’m on the train. I fold. I hover. I whisper “sorry” to people who haven’t even seen me yet.
On one such evening, I was trying to avoid anyone’s shins while hauling my bike up a flight of stairs after getting off the train, when I felt someone close behind me.
Terrified that I’d clipped someone, I whipped around to see a smiling woman who had one hand casually gripping the back of my bike.
“I got you,” she said, like we were old friends moving a couch.
I told her I had it under control.
“Two hands are better than one,” she said. “I got you.”
So we climbed the stairs together: me, my bike and a total stranger, moving in perfect, unspoken coordination. At the top, she let go, nodded and vanished into the crowd.
— Evan Abel
Central Park Zoo
Dear Diary:
Years ago, our nanny would take our son and daughter to the Central Park Zoo, where they could be set free from their stroller.
It was safe because the children loved the zoo and always stayed in the nanny’s sight and because the zoo’s walls meant there was no way they could leave.
One spring day when I was not working, I decided to accompany them all on a walk through the park, with the kids in their stroller.
As we passed the zoo, a guard at the entrance beckoned our nanny over and had a deep consultation with her.
She was laughing when she came back.
“He wanted to know who was that strange woman walking with me,” she said.
— Georgia Raysman
Read all recent entries and our submissions guidelines. Reach us via email diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter.
Illustrations by Agnes Lee
Employees at the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston are gearing up for contract negotiations with the Seaport museum after quietly opting to unionize last month.
Just over 90 employees, in roles ranging from visitor services to development to curation, are now being represented by the UAW Local 2110, a New York-based union, as they prepare to go to the bargaining table, seeking better pay and other job protections.
The ICA voluntarily recognized the union shortly after the workers went to museum leadership in early April, said Maida Rosenstein, UAW Local 2110’s director of organizing. That meant the employees could sidestep a formal election through the National Labor Relations Board and instead conduct a card-counting process.
“That all happened quite quickly,” said Rosenstein.
“Our experience with getting voluntary recognition was that the ICA was reasonable about the process,” she added. “So hopefully that will continue through the bargaining process.”
The next step, Rosenstein said, is for the workers to elect a bargaining committee from among their ranks, and then draw up some specific proposals. “We’re hopeful of being able to be negotiating this summer,” she said.
In a statement, the ICA’s director, Nora Burnett Abrams, who stepped into the top job last May, noted that “our exceptional staff are at the heart of what makes the museum so special.”
“We are voluntarily recognizing our employees’ choice to be represented by a union and view the decision to organize as an expression of their deep dedication to the institution,” Burnett Abrams said. “We look forward to working collaboratively and in good faith with Local UAW 2110 toward a collective agreement.”
The ICA is just the latest local institution to see labor action among its workforce. UAW Local 2110 also represents employees at the MFA Boston, who voted to unionize in 2020 and secured compensation increases and other benefit improvements when they ratified their first contract in 2022. Workers at MASS MoCa in North Adams, the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine are also represented by UAW Local 2110.
Carter Seggev, a 28-year-old events coordinator at the museum, said seeing the MFA go through its own unionization process served as something of a blueprint for the ICA workers.
“It has been a very helpful beginner example, to sort of be like, ‘Oh, yeah, they can do it,’ and especially that scale,” he said.
Rosenstein said a chief concern among workers is improving pay, which is currently “very slightly above minimum wage at the entry level,” she said. Other concerns include protections against layoffs and other “health and safety” provisions, such as adequate rest and seating for visitor-facing employees.
For Seggev, who earns $50,000 a year at the museum, better pay is only one piece of the puzzle. He wants more transparency from museum leadership into policy decisions — and a greater say in the institution’s future.
“I like the ICA a lot. It’s a fun workplace, and I would love to have more of a voice in making sure that everyone is being considered and everyone’s needs are being taken into account,” he said. “For me personally, that’s been the biggest driving force.”
He added that, since workers went public with their organizing efforts, he’s been happy with leadership’s willingness to talk with workers about their aims. He was also encouraged by the museum’s voluntary recognition of the union.
“I know that is a very rare thing, and so far, the communication has been very positive,” he said. “I think everyone’s sort of looking forward to working together to make the ICA better.”
The ICA, which has been housed in a gleaming glass building perched on the waterfront since 2006, had an operating surplus of about $800,000 in the fiscal year that ended in June 2025, according to its latest publicly released financial statements. That was up more than a quarter-million dollars from the previous year.
Dana Gerber can be reached at dana.gerber@globe.com. Follow her @danagerber6.
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