The chairman of the Texas Democrats has apologized for comments about transgender rights he made to The Texas Newsroom in the wake of the party’s major election losses.
In a statement posted to X late Wednesday, Gilberto Hinojosa said he recognized “the pain and frustration” his words caused.
“I extend my sincerest apologies to those I hurt with my comments today,” he wrote. “In frustration over the GOP's lies to incite hate for trans communities, I failed to communicate my thoughts with care and clarity.”
He added: “You deserve to feel seen, valued and safe in our state and our party. My unequivocal and unwavering support for LGBTQ+ Texans remains steadfast, and I am committed to ensuring our party never abandons you, especially when you need us most.”
Hinojosa issued the apology hours after he told The Texas Newsroom that the issues of immigration and transgender rights hurt Democrats at the polls.
“You have a choice as a party," said Hinojosa, a former county judge from the Rio Grande Valley who has led the party since 2012. "You could, for example, you can support transgender rights up and down all the categories where the issue comes up, or you can understand that there's certain things that we just go too far on, that a big bulk of our population does not support."
The story gained traction on social media, with other party members, transgender advocates and LGBTQ rights groups criticizing Hinojosa’s comments — and some calling for him to step down.
“These aren't comments made out of frustration. these are comments made out of unchecked transphobia. this is unacceptable leadership. resign,” Brigitte Bandit, a nonbinary drag queen who spoke at the state party’s convention this year, wrote on X.
Equality Texas, the state’s largest LGBTQ rights groups, also weighed in.
“It's irresponsible and offensive that the long-standing Chairman of the Texas Democratic Party would try to hang the losses suffered statewide by Democrats around the necks of transgender Texans,” Interim CEO Brad Pritchett said in a statement. “There are more than 90,000 transgender people living in Texas. This is our state too. We need steadfast allies, not weak figureheads."
A spokesperson for the Texas Democrats pointed to the party’s platform, which has sections voicing support for the rights of LGBTQIA+ Texans, including transgender youth and adults.
“The Texas Democratic Party’s fervent commitment to protecting and expanding the rights of trans and all LGTBQ+ Texans remains a top priority in our movement — especially as we near the legislative session and second Trump administration,” the spokesperson added.
This election cycle, Democrats across the country were targeted for supporting transgender rights. The issue took center stage here in Texas, too, as Republican commentators, donors and politicians targeted their opponents with anti-transgender ads.
U.S. Senate hopeful Colin Allred here in Texas, who challenged Ted Cruz, was one of them. In an ad, Cruz said Allred “voted to allow boys in girls’ bathrooms, boys in girls’ locker rooms, boys in girls’ sports.”
Cruz’s comments were apparently in reference to two bills affecting transgender rights.
The Equality Act was federal legislation that would have prohibited discrimination — including access to restrooms, locker rooms and dressing rooms — based on a person’s sexuality or gender identity. Allred voted for it.
The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act would have barred athletes who were assigned male at birth from competing in women’s sports. Allred voted against it.
In response to Cruz, Allred issued his own ad pointing out that he is a dad and a Christian.
“I don’t want boys playing girls’ sports, or any of this ridiculous stuff that Ted Cruz is saying,” the ad notes. Many transgender rights advocates criticized the ad, saying Allred was abandoning them.
Cruz beat Allred by more than 8 points.
So, on the heels of these losses, what did Hinojosa actually say about transgender rights?
The Texas Newsroom reached out to the chairman on Wednesday morning to discuss the party’s election night losses. When asked what Democrats can do in the future, Hinojosa brought up the issues of immigration and transgender rights.
The Texas Newsroom published some of his comments yesterday. Here is more.
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH HINOJOSA
Q: What can Democrats or the opposition party do in future?
A: Well, they [Republicans] got a little help from us and that, and that's — on this whole immigration issue and the way we've handled some of these transgender issues as well.
You know the — look, I don't know how long ago it was but it was months early in this whole huge surge of asylum seekers coming into the United States. I spoke to certain people in the White House that I know and warned them that this was going to have devastating effects upon us unless he did something, unless the president did something quickly. They waited. They waited probably a year or a year and a half before they took any action on this. They took the action that we asked them to take a year and a half ago.
I distinctly remember having a conversation with one of his senior advisers, who I know, and I said, ‘Look, you know, this is, this is really, really bad.’ I said, ‘I'm a progressive. I understand that we have to treat people the right way that are coming into the country, that are seeking asylum, that have no other choice. But at the end of the day, you know that is having a huge political effect on the Democratic Party.
And it's not just with white folks. It's with Hispanics, African Americans, every every group of people out there are being very, very negatively affected by what they're seeing in media.’
You know what they see — like for example, here in the border area, I had a constable come up to me and he said, ‘I don't know about whether Democrats are going to be able to make it this election because all my friends are voting for Trump and Trump's people.’
And I said, ‘How is that possible?’ He says, ‘Well how do you think they feel they have to struggle to earn enough money to put a brand new pair of tennis shoes on their kids, you know, or buy them a jacket for the winter time, and then they see these people coming in, you know, these asylum seekers that these private agencies are taking care of, they buy brand new Nike tennis shoes, brand new jackets and everything that they need. And they look at them and they say, ‘Well, how come [inaudible] get all these things for my kids and my family? And they come into this country and they get everything.’
I'm not saying that they're right. I'm just saying that this is what they're saying.
Q: So is that as a messaging problem, or is it a policy problem for Democrats?
A: Both. Both. I mean, look, the response that I got from the White House was, ‘We've tried to provide a solution to this problem. We had bipartisan legislation and that bipartisan legislation was rejected by the Republicans because Trump told him that he wanted to continue to have this as a campaign issue during the campaign. And I said, ‘Well, no, no, no. Yeah, that's what, in fact, it's happening. But the bottom line,’ I said, ‘is that this is happening on your watch. You know, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. It doesn't matter why it was created. It matters how the perception is by the people that we're going to rely upon to elect the next President of the United States and the Congress as well and, you know, courthouses and so forth. It's going to affect us, and you have to do something now and if it means shutting down the border, you know, until we figure out a solution to this, then so be it. It has to happen. You know, we didn't create this problem. It was created by circumstances beyond our control. But it is now our problem, and we have to resolve it.’
And the response, and was that I got was, ‘Well, I'm not sure what to tell you.’ And so nothing happened. And this is the visuals that people were being exposed to in the media. And it hurt really bad. Why do you think that Trump did so well with Hispanics? Because Hispanics live on the border. A lot of their families live on the border. They see this happening every day. I mean, we're talking about thousands of people crossing into the United States, and the government is perceived not to be able to do anything to solve it.
Q: Do you think they'll listen next time there's a concern like that raised?
A: Well, I mean, if they don't listen to those issues then they got a death wish when it comes to ultimately winning elections because this is clear to everybody.
The other thing they killed us on — and this is part of their effective misinformation commercials that they had. So you had, on the one hand, you've got these billionaires willing to fund, you know, these Republicans that are running for all these offices, whether it's state rep or for the Court of Appeals or for Congress. And they start labeling every person that's affiliated with the Democratic Party as people who support government funding for transgender sex change operations, right?
We all know that that's BS, and that that did not happen, and that they took a vote that was taken for military funding that they basically try to put in a poison pill through some amendments that would prevent federal funding for transgender sex change operations. And they made it look like that our people were voting for it, whether it was Colin Allred or or anybody else that was in Congress.
Q: So regarding the protection for the rights of transgender people, do you think the Democratic Party is going to move away from that now?
A: I think what the Democratic Party has to realize is that there's some things that we can support and some things that we cannot. And when we're pressed upon to take votes of these kinds that we need to be cognizant of the long term consequences of these kinds of votes.
That does not say that we don't support gender rights. But it's just like abortions, right? The Hyde Amendment was passed, what, 25-30, years ago, and all the Hyde Amendment says is, ‘we will not provide federal funding for abortions,’ right? And that's been an accepted — that's an accepted policy that was imposed upon us, you know, 25 or 30 years ago that all Democrats today support, or very few don't support, right?
It is not that we don't support abortion rights. Of course we do. But we understand that there's some people that have a problem with having the federal government pay for abortions with their money, their taxpayer money, when they have philosophical issues with abortion.
Q: So if the only money that is going to transgender care is in the prison system, should that be cut off?
A: Well, I mean, you have to consider whether that's something that you want to use taxpayer money to do.
I mean, come on. I mean, look, I mean we, we can say, OK, we respect people's right to say, ‘we don't want my taxpayers money to be used for that,’’ and at the same time support transgender rights. I mean, you know, I'm not saying that we need to take that position right now. But when those votes happen, we need to recognize that there are going to be long term political consequences when we do that.
So you have a choice as a party. You have a choice as a party. You could, for example, you can support transgender rights up and down all the categories where the issue comes up, or you can understand that there's certain things that we just go too far on, that a big bulk of our population does not support.
I mean, look, this is a democracy. You elect people to office, and when you elect somebody to office, that person has to listen to his taxpayers — I mean, his constituents. And if you have such — I mean, look, down the line Hispanics are not as progressive as other folks in our in our in our base on these kinds of issues. So, you ignore what they believe in, or or what they don't believe in, or you do things that are reasonable, right, that take into consideration their concerns.
Our party sometimes doesn't do that, and the consequences are what you saw in this election.
They [Republicans] took this billionaire money and every second of TV time they could, they put it on there, and they said, ‘[U.S. Rep.] Vicente González paid for — use your taxpayer [dollars]s for sex change operations, for trans standards.’ And they went over and over and over and over, and Vicente almost lost his election.
And so, they labeled, you know, [Texas Senator Morgan] LaMantia — that even though she didn't have anything to do with that — and she ended up losing her election. And I can go down the line on how it hurt Harris.
Trump won Cameron and Starr County because that's all that we're hearing. And so, you know, the party's got to make a choice. I mean, we all believe in all these issues very strongly and we support them. But at the same time, if you are going to ignore the political consequences of these kinds of things, then you're asking to lose these elections in the manner that we did.
Q: So what does this mean for the future of policymaking here in Texas?
A: Well, it depends on the issues that come up.
Q: What do you think will come up?
A: – against vouchers. You know, we support abortion rights, we support transgender rights, all these issues, we continue to support them. We support taking care of our environment. You know, all these things that's not going to change, right? But at the same time, you know, you have to recognize that we are outmatched 100-to-1 in funding in order for us to be able to be effective about anything.
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