Leading Democrats offered a slow trickle of critical reaction on Wednesday to the Supreme Court’s decision upholding a state ban on some transgender care for youths, underscoring the new discomfort on the issue from a party that has long seen itself as a champion of L.G.B.T.Q. Americans.
Hours after the ruling arrived, some top Democrats like Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, had denounced the decision as part of a “cruel crusade against trans Americans.”
But many others, including key players in the 2028 shadow primary race, had yet to weigh in. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California was posting on social media about the National Guard. Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania had thoughts about housing. Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland shared a celebration of Pride — but said nothing about the major new court ruling.
Even Democrats who condemned the ruling tried to turn the focus to other issues. Mr. Schumer suggested on X that Republicans were using the topic “to divert attention from ripping health care away from millions of Americans.”
The careful calculus reflected how the fraught topic of transgender issues has tormented Democrats for months, with Republicans putting them firmly on the back foot. Many party leaders now believe that liberal politicians took positions in recent years that deviated too far from the beliefs of the average voter.
Last year, Donald J. Trump painted Vice President Kamala Harris as too far to the left by pointing to her past positions on transgender care, including support for taxpayer-funded transition surgeries for prisoners and migrants, which she expressed on a questionnaire during the 2019 presidential campaign. (Mr. Trump elided the fact that appointees in his first administration provided gender-affirming care for a small group of inmates.)
“Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” declared a widely circulated Trump ad. The line of attack was considered by some Democrats to be one of the most effective against Ms. Harris.
Since her loss, they have made some efforts to pivot, conscious of polling like a New York Times survey in February that found that nearly 80 percent of Americans — including 67 percent of Democrats — believed that transgender female athletes should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports. A survey from SCOTUSPoll in April found that 64 percent of Americans, including 38 percent of Democrats, supported states’ being able to ban certain treatments for transgender minors.
But many elected Democrats still see themselves as important defenders of transgender Americans, and plenty of rank-and-file lawmakers had full-throated condemnations of the ruling on Wednesday.
“Trans youth and their health care are under attack — and now our highest court has joined in on the assault,” Representative Summer Lee of Pennsylvania wrote on social media.
Representative Brittany Pettersen of Colorado added: “As a mom, I can’t imagine the pain these families navigate as they’re denied the care their children need. Trans kids, like all kids, deserve the freedom to reach their greatest potential.”
Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, who has a transgender cousin, appeared to be the most forthcoming of the party’s potential 2028 contenders, writing on X that “Illinois has enshrined protections to meet this very moment.”
“In a time of increasing overreach and hateful rhetoric, it’s more important than ever to reaffirm our commitment to the rights and dignity of the LGBTQ+ community,” he added. “You have a home here always.”
In recent months, other ambitious Democrats have sounded a different tune, with Mr. Newsom making headlines in March when he suggested that transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports was “deeply unfair.”
Pete Buttigieg, who ran for president in 2020 and later served as transportation secretary, offered a nuanced answer at a town hall in Iowa last month when asked about transgender rights.
“While I think we do need to revisit some of the things that we have had to say policy-wise that haven’t kept up with the times as a party, that doesn’t mean, ever, throwing vulnerable people under the bus,” said Mr. Buttigieg, who is gay.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Newsom’s office declined to comment on Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision but provided a list of actions the governor had taken to protect L.G.B.T.Q. rights. Asked whether Mr. Buttigieg had spoken about the ruling or would issue a statement, a spokesman for him replied, “He has not.”
Even Democrats without evident presidential aspirations have shifted on transgender issues this year. As Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada voted against a bill barring transgender women and girls from participating on girls’ sports teams, she said she supported “fair play and safety and do not support transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports when it compromises those principles.”
And Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, one of the first to break with his party on transgender athletes, faced a backlash in November when he said in an interview: “I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.”
Representative Sarah McBride of Delaware, the first openly transgender member of Congress, has focused less on her identity and more on issues like paid family leave and the minimum wage. In a statement on Wednesday, she said that the Supreme Court ruling “undermines doctors” and that “politicians and judges are inserting themselves in exam rooms.”
In a podcast interview this week with Ezra Klein, a New York Times opinion columnist, Ms. McBride suggested that activists had taken their foot off the gas after gay marriage was legalized and public perception shifted in favor of L.G.B.T.Q. rights. That has allowed, she added, “for the misinformation, the disinformation — that well-coordinated, well-funded campaign — to really take advantage of that lack of understanding.”
Representative Becca Balint of Vermont, who has been outspoken about defending transgender rights, said in an interview on Wednesday that Republicans were winning the messaging battle. As a result, she said, she has had to educate and reassure Democratic colleagues who were feeling unsure about how to talk about the transgender community.
“For any member who doesn’t have someone close to them who is a transgender American,” Ms. Balint said, “there’s a lack of confidence there in talking about the issue.”
But was she frustrated that more Democrats had not been vocal about protecting transgender rights?
“Look — I’m a queer American. I get frustrated a lot by how my community is attacked,” Ms. Balint said. “But I really try to take it in stride and perspective, which is: I know that underneath so much of this is about fear.”
Jay Brown, the chief of staff for the Human Rights Campaign, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group, said several hundred people had shown up at a rally near the Supreme Court building in Washington on Wednesday afternoon, including Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who both gave speeches.
But he acknowledged that his group had also had plenty of conversations with Democrats this spring who had expressed hesitancy on various aspects of transgender rights.
Mr. Brown compared the current challenge to the movement to legalize gay marriage, which confronted setbacks for years as it worked to change hearts and minds before eventually breaking through.
“The question there that was facing the movement was, ‘Are you pushing too hard for marriage equality?’ We didn’t give up,” he said. “We’ve got to do the work, and we’ve got real champions that are going to stand with us — and for those who aren’t there yet, we’ll get there.”
A member of the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, was perhaps the most prominent and vocal voice defending transgender people on Wednesday.
In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor wrote that “the court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims.”
Michael Gold and Megan Mineiro contributed reporting from Washington.
Kellen Browning is a Times political reporter based in San Francisco.
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