Abdul El-Sayed dismisses concerns over male athletes in girls’ sports, calls debate manufactured
The Michigan Senate nominee dismissed efforts to shield children from ideas their parents find objectionable at school as “profoundly outdated,” citing the “free flow of information” online. The remarks came days before the Nov. 3 election as El-Sayed faced defections from his own party.
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed brushed off concerns about allowing male athletes in girls’ sports, calling the debate a manufactured social issue and arguing that widespread internet access makes efforts to shield children from ideas their parents oppose at school outdated.
During an extended “60 Minutes” interview released Nov. 1, correspondent Ross Douthat pressed El-Sayed on parental authority in schools and other cultural flashpoints, including how he reconciles his Muslim faith with his socially liberal positions.
“What happens with transgender kids on sports teams and so on?” Douthat asked. “These are places where rights are in conflict, right? What do you think happens there?”
“I don’t know that that’s actually true,” El-Sayed responded. “I think we manufacture these social issues.”
El-Sayed then argued that widespread access to smartphones and the internet limits parents’ ability to shield children from ideas they find objectionable.
“You can get access to everything and anything in the whole world. All the world’s information in your pocket,” he said. “The notion, somehow, that you are going to prevent your child from being exposed to something that you may find disagreeable and that that is going to be because of school is so profoundly outdated.”
He called the “free flow of information” a “beautiful thing” and said parents should explain their beliefs and help children navigate what they encounter.
“The most important thing you can do is not try to protect a person from seeing a thing,” El-Sayed continued. “It’s about trying to make sure that as you coach your kid through the world, that you are engaging with them and saying, ‘Here’s what I believe. Here’s what you may see in the world. You get to make your choices about who you’re going to be in the world.’”
He added, “That’s going to require us to make do with the fact that the internet is a real thing.”
The Democrat argued that political disputes over cultural issues distract from the “real issues that we are facing in our lives,” such as the cost of gas, groceries, and health care.
Returning to sports eligibility, El-Sayed said he was “not running to govern sports” and that such questions belonged to sports’ governing bodies.
Republican opponent Mike Rogers shared a clip of the exchange on X, calling El-Sayed’s remarks “completely unacceptable.”
The debate comes as polling shows broad public opposition to athletes competing on teams that do not match their sex. A November 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 73% of U.S. adults were uncomfortable with leaving girls’ sports open to “transgender” competition, and a separate February 2025 Pew survey found that 66% favored laws or policies requiring all athletes to compete according to their sex.
In August, El-Sayed drew attention during an appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” when he compared circumcision to gender “transition” surgeries on children while arguing that parents and doctors should decide whether minors undergo such procedures.
“Do you really want to have this conversation?” El-Sayed retorted. “Are you circumcised?”
Watters said circumcision is “different than castration,” but El-Sayed continued with the comparison.
“I’m just saying that yes, circumcision is surgery on a kid’s ding-a-ling, so if you really want to bring that up, you can,” El-Sayed said. “I just think you guys are really selective about how you want to talk about these things.”
The latest interview comes just days before the Nov. 3 election and amid a late split within Michigan’s Democratic Party. Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens, whom El-Sayed defeated in the August primary, endorsed Rogers Nov. 1, following a public dispute over Israel and an outside group’s advertisement that she characterized as antisemitic, as Zeale News previously reported.
Other Democrats have also backed Rogers, including former Rep. Hansen Clarke of Michigan and Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters.
>> Michigan Democrat endorses Republican Mike Rogers for Senate in stunning party break <<
Rogers, meanwhile, has said he would not seek to roll back the abortion provisions Michigan voters enshrined in the state constitution in 2022, prompting criticism from some pro-life groups. CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt said in a Nov. 1 statement that while the organization believes “Abdul El-Sayed would be far worse,” it “cannot endorse a candidate who supports abortion.”
Reinhardt expressed respect for Catholics who say they cannot vote for either candidate, while reminding the faithful that El-Sayed “offers Catholic voters no refuge.”
“He is a firm supporter of abortion rights and their expansion,” she explained, “and on issue after issue, from his total support of transgender ideology, his total disregard for parental rights, his opposition to school choice, and his problematic ties to Islamic radicalism — to mention just a few — makes clear that his agenda runs directly against what the Church teaches.”
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