Democrats ponder their approach to transgender topics

DALLAS — The economy, jobs, strong schools, access to health care, homeownership and much more. After their humbling loss to President Donald Trump, Democrats are refocusing their messages to appeal to working class voters — and win elections.

They want to shake off labels that they are the party of out-of-touch elites. It’s better to connect with the average Mike or Maggie than mega-stars like Taylor and Beyoncé, and they need to focus on those important topics.

Despite their best laid plans, the Democrats’ road to rebranding could be obstructed by hot-button culture topics, most notably the transgender rights issues that have put them on the defensive and alienated some voters.

Democrats haven’t developed a strategy to blunt what will likely be another round of attack ads in 2026. Republicans in 2024 spent at least $215 million on ads criticizing Democrats on transgender policies, capitalizing on polls that show Democrats are not in tune with most Americans.

—The Dallas Morning News

Columbia University faculty protest policy changes, as Trump administration praises school ‘cooperation’

NEW YORK — As classes at Columbia University resumed Monday, dozens of students and faculty protested sweeping policy changes demanded by the Trump administration and adopted by school leaders over spring break.

Neither President Donald Trump’s threats to stamp out what he calls “wokeness” in higher education nor steady rain deterred protesters from rallying against Columbia’s acquiescence. Before the weekend, the university made a number of concessions to the federal government in a bid to restore $400 million in canceled contracts and grants.

Among the most consequential were new oversight of Middle Eastern studies and power of campus security to make arrests. For several professors, those measures were a step too far, prompting them to join the demonstrations for the first time.

“I just think it’s incredibly important for faculty to come out and protect academic freedom,” said Anya Schiffrin, a communications professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, after her first Columbia protest.

—New York Daily News

‘A new level of anger’: Demonstrators disrupt worship, protest at Orlando churches

Rev. Terri Steed Pierce has encountered hate before. People have stood outside her church and shouted that as a gay woman she is an affront to the gospel. Videos of her sermons have been altered to make her sound like a cartoon character and used in social media campaigns to disparage women and the LBGTQ+ community.

But Sunday, March 9, was the first time the hate found its way inside Joy Metropolitan Ministries, as protesters entered the Orlando church and interrupted her service shouting “synagogue of sin” to the majority LGBTQ+ congregation.

“They actually came inside our sanctuary and spewed hate from our safe space,” said Steed Pierce. Another Orlando church — one with a gay pastor — faced similar protests this month. At both churches, leaders have now hired off-duty police officers to serve as security guards for their Sunday morning services.

The protests at local churches mirror a national trend, with anti-LGBTQ incidents doubling in the last two years to more than 1,100 tallied from June 2023 to June 2024, according to GLAAD, a national LGBTQ advocacy group.

—Orlando Sentinel

Erdogan bets world will turn a blind eye to turmoil in Turkey

When Turkey jailed Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s biggest rival at the weekend, thousands of protesters took to the streets. Notably less vocal were the country’s Western allies.

The Turkish president and commander of NATO’s second-biggest army is banking on the world needing him more than it needs to join a fight over the country’s democracy. With the U.S. and Europe preoccupied with security challenges, Erdogan has positioned himself as a key power broker from Ukraine to the conflict zones of the Middle East and Africa.

Barring a few objections from European capitals, the international outcry after a Turkish court on Sunday formally arrested Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was conspicuous by its absence. Germany’s outgoing chancellor called his detention days earlier “depressing.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s State Department dismissed it as an internal matter.

Turkey’s government says prosecutors don’t act under political pressure. Many critics, though, have found themselves behind bars after challenging Erdogan, most recently this year as part of a wave of arrests and investigations. But the imprisonment of a figure as high profile as Imamoglu, widely seen as capable of defeating Erdogan in the next election, is unprecedented.

—Bloomberg News