Shortly after Buzzfeed News reported on a video of 2020 Democratic hopeful Mike Bloomberg referring to transgender people as “it”, the YouTube clip has gone private.
In the recording, taken in March 2019 at a forum hosted by the Bermuda Business Development Agency in Manhattan, Bloomberg argues that talking about transgender rights is a losing strategy during a presidential election.
“If your conversation during a presidential election is about some guy wearing a dress and whether he, she, or it can go to the locker room with their daughter, that’s not a winning formula for most people,” he says.
And while the clip has since been removed from YouTube, it’s currently all over Twitter:
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Queer supporters of Mike Bloomberg, how do you explain this to our transgender family and friends? Because they deserve a Democratic nominee that doesn’t refer to them as “it.” https://t.co/HNwuxDZzhf
— H. Alan Scott (@HAlanScott) February 19, 2020
According to Buzzfeed, Bloomberg went on to say:
“And so you can understand where somebody like Trump comes from. You can understand when you look at the Democratic Party, they are so far left that two years ago there was nobody on their side who would take these positions, and today virtually all the candidates for president of the Democratic Party are so progressive. I don’t know what progressive means.”
The comments echo this 2016 quote from Bloomberg:
“If you want to know if somebody is a good salesman, give him the job of going to the Midwest and picking a town and selling to that town the concept that some man wearing a dress should be in a locker room with their daughter.”
A campaign spokesperson responded:
“Mike understands that the transgender community has been under attack for decades and the advance of rights has not been equal. In April 2002, during his first year as mayor, Mike signed a sweeping transgender civil rights bill into law. His company provides comprehensive health care coverage for his transgender employees. As president, he has a comprehensive plan to secure rights for transgender Americans, including passing the Equality Act, ensuring transgender people have access to affirming health care and working to end the crisis of violence against transgender women. Mike is running to defeat Donald Trump and reverse the many policies he has implemented that attack the rights of the transgender community.”
The story was published just hours after the Bloomberg campaign released a video featuring designer Isaac Mizrahi that touts the candidate’s advocacy for LGBTQ+ youth.
“Mike is so incredibly sensitive to this issue,” Mizrahi says.
I lived in @MikeBloomberg’s New York, and I saw him fight every day for the LGBTQ+ community. And not just the adults. He fought for the kids who are so vulnerable. We need that kind of compassion in our next president. pic.twitter.com/CgkTMYhxke
— Isaac Mizrahi (@IsaacMizrahi) February 18, 2020
Bloomberg will join the remaining Democratic field on stage for the first time Wednesday night at the NBC/MSNBC debate in Nevada.
Paul Nadolski
Because of course…
We already have one bored billionaire egomaniac Republican in the White House. Why do we need another one? I’d be happy to vote for Biden, Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, or Klobuchar in November, but I won’t even consider voting for Bloomberg.
Taiyoken
Don’t be sad, Paul, because evidently you can find a sex partner tonight. Since these bots never go away anymore…
Cam
Agreed, except for the part where you call Trump a billionaire. There’s no way.
Hussain-TheCanadian
@ Cam
BWAHAHAHAHA you caught me off guard there Cam, that is so true, the orange self parody muppet is in no way a billionaire.
Taiyoken
Is anyone surprised the former republican, who has lots of quotes proving his racism, misogyny, and homophobia, as well as his desire to cut social security, medicaid, and medicare, this guy also happens to be a complete bigot to trans people?
A far right-wing plutocrat is buying his way into the democratic elections, and somehow people are okay with this?
Where’s that pro-Bloomberg troll now?
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
I will post this every time a thread about Bloomberg appears on this site. We are facing the gravest threat to our rights and freedoms, all the progress we have made in the past 20 years is in jeapordy if the Orange Puppet is reelected. It has already appointed over 25% of the Federal Judiciary, all of them coming from the Federalist Society’s extreme far right pipeline. RBG’S health is tenous at best. Bloomberg is the only candidate middle America will vote for. They WILL NOT vote for any of the other Democrat candidates.
Bloomberg has a proven Pro-Gay track record. At this point am not going to quibble over stupid comments made.
Now, we’ve come a long way since 1969, when police stormed the Stonewall Inn in New York City. Back then, New York and virtually every other state had laws on the books that made same-sex relationships a crime. It’s hard to imagine now that you could go to prison for years, just for being intimate with someone you loved in the privacy of your own home.
But for all the progress we have made on equality since then, we’re faced with new reminders of how much farther we still have to go very single day.
The fact is, as John said to me recently: You can be married on Sunday and fired on Monday.
In most states, there is no law that stops companies from firing people for their sexual orientation — or renting a home to them.
Many veterans are still not receiving their full military benefits because they were discharged before the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
And tragically, transgender young people are being denied access to medical treatment, harassed, beaten, and even killed — for doing nothing more than living their full truth.
Each of these realities are proof that just as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not eliminate racism, the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality did not eliminate bias and hatred toward the LGBTQ+ community.
The march for equality and justice in this country has always been too slow — but it has also never stopped. And it falls to the president to help pick up the pace. The great ones always roll the ball of progress a little farther and a little faster.
But this president keeps trying to kick it backwards. He’s done that by appointing judges with anti-LGTBQ+ views and by not advancing the rights of LGBTQ+ people around the world.
In America, we need the opposite from our president. We need someone who will protect all people from hatred and discrimination.
We need a president who will use the power of the Oval Office to pass the Equality Act, and ensure that civil rights laws apply to sexual orientation and identity.
We need a president who will not permit religion to be used as an excuse to discriminate against people — and who will make schools and communities more inclusive and safer for LGBTQ+ students.
We need a president who will reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act immediately — and strengthen it to include more comprehensive protections for LGBTQ+ Americans.
We need a president who will close disparities in health care access and work to end HIV/AIDS.
We need a president who will restore the United States’ standing as a moral leader in the global fight for equal rights.
There is a rising tide of hatred in this country — and it has led to violent attacks on all marginalized groups. If we don’t confront this reality head-on, we risk allowing it to overwhelm us.
That means we also need a president who will no longer turn a blind eye to the horrifying number of transgender people who have been attacked or killed in this country — especially young transgender women of color.
It’s time for the federal government to make hate crimes like these a top priority — and to close the LGBTQ+ panic loophole that has let far too many off these bigoted attackers walk free.
Finally, we need a president who will be work for all Americans — all orientations and identities, all colors and creeds. It’s the only way for us to bring this country back together and start putting the United back in the United States of America.
I know we can do it — and that’s why I’m running.
Michael Bloomberg
JAW
Interesting…
Is that a speech of Mike’s?
If so… when where and to whom did he make it?
Cam
I’d vote for a bucket of fish heads vs. Trump. So whomever the nominee is, I’m voting for him. Bloomberg just isn’t who I’d like to see there.
Taiyoken
Wow, you’ve got a lot of balls, no integrity, but a lot of balls. You must be well paid. I think we can stop this nonsense about Bloomberg’s pro-gay record. If you’ve been paying attention at all, it’s pretty clear Bloomberg’s record is decidedly anti-gay, not to mention anti-trans, anti-women, and anti-racial-minority.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
The most memorable thing about the twentieth century that should be remembered are the dictators that it gave rise to and the conditions that caused their rise to power. Mao, Stalin, Trotsky, Lenin, Kim, Mussolini, Hitler, Khomeini, Menachem Begin are a few of the tyrants who took advantage of tumultuous times and seized power. Trump has eroded the constitution down to where no one feels as though they should obey the law nor be held accountable for anything. Bloomberg is a tyrant who sees the opportunity to inflict his will upon us southerners and we say hell no. He refused to settle the case of the Central Park Five the entire time he was in office even though he knew they were innocent. He ordered black and dark skinned hispanic males to be stopped and search for making the mistake of either not already being in incarceration or walking down the street while black. Imagine being in a situation where officers said you had drugs and guns in your possession because they have a quota to make or be terminated based on crime statistics. He wanted to chase all of them out of NYC to get the price of homeownership up while knowing how few blacks actually owned property in NYC overall. The man has a documented history of stepping all over basic human rights but you see him as a savior because of a few things he had no other choice but to say if he wants the nomination? Be careful of running up to the tanks of a new occupying army as they are parading down the boulevard. They just might be worse than the occupiers they just ousted whom you thought you hated. You must have forgotten the most dangerous thing about Bloomberg, he controls the media. He got away with what he did because he had the media on his side. He did it once and he sure as hell will do it again once he gets in office. That man is no friend to you and I and you need to wake up and smell the coffee.
Hussain-TheCanadian
I predict Bloomberg is gonna get his @ss handed to him at the debates tonight, I made sure I have a box of extra pop popcorn ready, it’s going to be so good seeing him answer for his classism, racism, misogyny and homophobia.
#FeeltheBern!!!
1898
he is a phony and a fraud
a blue MAGA hat is still a MAGA hat. that’s Mike Bloomberg in a nutshell
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
JAW:. Bloomberg penned that show of support for The Advocate.
And to those who attempt to conjure up his “homophobia” read this and STFU:
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announced this week that he would back any Republican senator who agreed to support gay marriage (New York Times). In his visit to Albany on Tuesday, May 17, Bloomberg strongly encouraged New York state senators to get on “the right side of history” by voting yes on same-sex marriage.
In pushing for the move towards a progressive approach to marriage equality, Bloomberg appealed to the senators’ moral sensibilities, sense of history and self-interest in furthering their re-election campaigns. Putting his money where his mouth is, Bloomberg agreed to provide assistance to any Republican candidate who supported gay marriage – regardless of how they vote on any other issue. This marked a significant shift for Bloomberg who has not in the past built endorsements around a single issue.
Gay marriage because a thing in NY because of Bloomberg. The four Republican senators suffered for their support. True to his word he gave them over one million dollars and hired two of them…..
He is an honest man with integrity who has proven he is an ally of our community. It’s time to end the bickering nonsense and rally behind the one man that can prevent four more years of the Orange Puppet and the incredible harm he will cause to our community
Toofie
People are quick to forget he was on our side back then.
IWantAFullBeard
What would make someone vote for Bloomberg for president based on his only governmental experience as being a mayor? Is it because he is rich?
inbama
“Only a Mayor?”
We’re talking about our greatest and near-ungovernable city of New York.
Hussain-TheCanadian
Oh dear god who saw the debate???
Little Mikey got his @ss handed to him, power slammed by Elizabeth, DTTed by Bernie, even good old Joe laid the smack down on little Mikey, it was glorious.
Elizabeth won the debate, she was glimmering, oozing confidence, she was awesome to watch.
Kangol2
I did. It was one of the best Democratic debates thus far. If Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Amy Klobuchar could put Bloombucks through the ringer that easily, just imagine what Don the Con will do to him. Not a good showing at all, Mayor Billionaire. All that came through was his arrogance and aloofness. That petulant smirk on his face most of the time didn’t help, either.
Warren did win the debate. She or Bernie should win the election!
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
Wow! You make it sound as though he left the stage looking like a schmuck. At least Elizabeth Warren showed she was good for something (calling ol’ Bloomie out).
RyanMBecker
As a lifelong New Yorker, I can verify that Bloomberg has been gay and trans-friendly since holding public office. In fact, I know that he is personally LGBTQ-friendly through a common [gay] friend. Even when he was a Republican.
Ronbo
Is your friend an “it”, a “fat broad” or a “horse-faced lesbian”? Remember, astroturfing for money is reaching new heights with billionaires, insurance corporations and establishment organizations.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
How much did he donate to The Gay Center to keep it open?