Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed told “60 Minutes” correspondent Ross Douthat that he does not consider transgender athletes’ participation in girls’ sports a pressing issue, calling it something Americans “manufacture” rather than confront directly.
“And instead, we’re out here talking about who gets to play what sport, which, you know, should be the question of the people who govern sports. I’m not running to govern sports, right?” El-Sayed said in the interview.
Douthat had raised the subject while asking El-Sayed about parental authority over education and tensions between some Muslim voters and cultural liberalism, including what schools teach and transgender students’ participation on sports teams. “Like these are places where rights are in conflict,” Douthat said, pressing El-Sayed on how such disagreements should be resolved.
“I don’t know that that’s actually true,” El-Sayed responded. “I think we manufacture these social issues because here’s the thing about it, Ross. You have an iPhone in your pocket probably or is it an iPhone or a Samsung?”
El-Sayed then argued that smartphones and the internet have made it unrealistic for parents to shield children from ideas they find objectionable, saying parents should instead explain their own beliefs and help kids navigate what they encounter. “I think it’s really important for us to recognize that the free flow of information is actually a beautiful thing,” he said.
He pivoted back to sports to argue that cultural flashpoints distract voters from pocketbook concerns. “A lot of the cultural war issues that get fought right now are about trying to distract us from the fact that we can’t afford our gas, can’t afford our groceries, can’t see a doctor, are worried about whether or not our kids are going to have a good life,” he said.
El-Sayed did not say in the exchange what eligibility rules he thinks sports organizations should adopt, nor whether he would support federal legislation restricting transgender athletes’ participation in girls’ and women’s sports.
A Sharp Contrast With His Opponent
El-Sayed faces Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in Tuesday’s election for the Senate seat held by retiring Democrat Gary Peters. Rogers posted a clip of the exchange on X, and it drew widespread criticism of El-Sayed online.
The two candidates have staked out starkly different positions on the issue. During his 2024 campaign, Rogers signed Independent Women’s Voice’s Stand With Women Commitment, pledging to back legislation preserving female-only athletic opportunities and private spaces. “Biological men should not be competing with our daughters, period,” Rogers said at the time.
Rogers also featured the issue in an Aug. 28 campaign ad released with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, part of what his campaign described as a coordinated seven-figure ad buy. “Abdul thinks football is bad, but men playing in women’s sports is good,” Rogers says in the spot.
El-Sayed, by contrast, has previously called for government action to secure transgender students’ access to sports teams and facilities matching their gender identity. In a March 2018 interview during his campaign for Michigan governor, Pride Source asked whether he would fight at the state level for students’ access to bathrooms, athletic facilities and teams consistent with their gender identity. El-Sayed said the state should “protect access to bathrooms, to locker rooms, to sports teams of choice for young people,” arguing that exclusion could worsen bullying and mental-health problems for transgender students.
Michigan Districts Under Federal Scrutiny
The debate is not abstract in Michigan. The U.S. Education Department announced on June 18 that it was opening Title IX investigations into Ann Arbor Public Schools, Monroe Public Schools and Chippewa Valley School District over allegations concerning athletic participation and locker-room access based on gender identity. The investigations do not themselves establish that the districts violated the law.
In Monroe, volleyball player Briley Lechner and her father sued the district, the Michigan High School Athletic Association and district officials in October, alleging officials concealed an opposing transgender player’s participation and allowed the teams to share locker-room facilities. Monroe’s superintendent said in April that an independent investigation had found the district’s Title IX allegations unsubstantiated. On Oct. 13, the Monroe school board voted 5-2 to restrict girls’ sports and girls’ locker rooms to biological females, according to CBS Detroit.
The Broader Policy Fight
The question has also played out nationally. The NCAA changed its policy in February 2025 following President Donald Trump’s executive order on women’s sports, barring athletes assigned male at birth from competing on women’s teams while allowing them to practice with those teams.
In the Senate, a motion to advance the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act fell short on March 3, 2025, receiving 51 votes in favor and 45 against — short of the 60 needed to clear the chamber’s procedural threshold. The bill would define sex for Title IX athletics compliance according to reproductive biology and genetics at birth.
