'Line In The Sand': Democrats Break With Party Over Gender Ideology, Face Legal Fight In Illinois

For years, Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender (DIAG) tried to do what they believed responsible citizens were supposed to do: engage with their own party, raise concerns and advocate for change from within — particularly when it comes to the party's unwavering allegiance to radical gender ideology.

Instead, they hit a wall.

"Trying to get engagement from any elected Democrat on this issue is like hitting your head against a brick wall," DIAG board secretary Jenny Poyer Ackerman told OutKick.

Now, that internal party conflict has spilled into court.

On Tuesday, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) filed a First Amendment lawsuit against Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, challenging a state law that bars organizations from using the words "Democrat" or "Republican" in their name unless they receive approval from party leadership.

Protesters who align with the Democratic Party but are against transgender athletes competing in women's sports gather outside the Supreme Court on January 13, 2026.

(Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

DIAG — an all-volunteer nonprofit made up largely of lifelong Democrats — was blocked from registering in Illinois because it refused to obtain permission from the Illinois Democratic Party.

Without that approval, the group could face fines or jail time for engaging in protected political speech in the state.

"The Illinois Democratic Party doesn’t get to decide whether we can call ourselves ‘Democrats,’" Ackerman said in a statement. "DIAG was founded on our belief in open inquiry, challenging ideological conformity, and above all, the freedom to speak out. Backing down would go against everything we believe in."

But for Ackerman and the parents behind DIAG, the lawsuit is about far more than a name.

A Breaking Point Inside The Party

DIAG was founded by parents whose children adopted transgender identities during COVID lockdowns — a period Ackerman says coincided with "a huge increase in the number of kids presenting themselves as transgender."

"What happens is that you find it surprisingly difficult to find objective information about how to help your kid when this happens," she told OutKick. "And when you discover that you’re not supposed to ask any questions — you’re just supposed to affirm and march her to the gender clinic where they’re going to suppress her puberty and then start giving her steroids — this becomes a line in the sand."

Ackerman stressed that, for most parents, this isn't a political issue at all.

"If your middle schooler comes home one day and tells you she suddenly realizes she’s been living in the wrong body, I guarantee you will not see this as a political problem," she said. "You will see it as something that needs attention."

That line, she said, has increasingly been drawn around women's sports.

And it's a reality that has been front and center for OutKick readers, particularly as courts, lawmakers, and sports governing bodies grapple with whether biological males should be allowed to compete in girls' and women's categories. 

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases involving trans-identifying male athletes in girls' school sports.

Members of Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender (DIAG) rally outside the Supreme Court.

(Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

During the hearings, DIAG representatives attended rallies outside the Supreme Court, where female athletes spoke out about being displaced in their own fields, gymnasiums and locker rooms.

"The young women who came — the athletes who came from all over the country to express their feelings about this experience they’ve been dealt — was incredibly powerful," she said. "They didn’t all have big, booming voices, but they really did manage to prevail."

DIAG Is Currently Registered In More Than 40 States

"Illinois is the only state that has rejected us because we call ourselves Democrats," Ackerman said, calling the rule "a really dumb relic."

That rejection is what prompted the lawsuit.

"Illinois can’t get around the First Amendment by outsourcing censorship to party bosses," FIRE attorney Daniel Zahn said in a statement. "No American — Republican, Democrat, or Independent — should have to bend the knee before a political party to participate in the political system."

For DIAG, seeking permission from the Democratic Party was never an option.

"They refuse on principle to seek permission from the very party they plan to criticize," the complaint states.

And there's a very real fear of retaliation among Democrats who are critical of gender ideology. Ackerman said that's why many DIAG supporters choose to remain anonymous.

"People feel that they need to be anonymous because maybe their jobs would be jeopardized, or sometimes their family relationships could be made much more tense if everyone knew how they felt about this," she said. "It’s just very fraught."

Political Consequences For Democrats

The issue of protecting women's sports and sex-based spaces has consistently polled as an 80/20 issue. But Ackerman believes Democratic leadership is increasingly boxed in by the most passionate trans activist voices — even when they don't represent the majority.

"When someone like Congressman Seth Moulton goes out on a limb and says something as anodyne as ‘I wouldn’t want one of my daughters to get mowed down by a boy on the soccer field,’ my hunch is that for every letter of support he gets, he might get 10 anguished pleas saying, ‘Please resist the MAGA extremists who would deny our child’s right to exist,’" she said.

That dynamic, she believes, has real electoral consequences. And we saw it play out in 2024, when Trump defeated Kamala Harris in a landslide.

"I don’t just worry about it — I see it all over," Ackerman said. "I couldn’t bring myself to vote for a single Democrat in the last election."

She emphasized that doesn't make DIAG a Republican group, either.

"We exist not just to aggregate Democratic voters who are mad as hell and want to talk about it," she said, "but also to be a resource to Democratic electeds and candidates who we want to regain contact with reality."

Whether Democratic leadership is willing to listen remains to be seen. But a growing number of Democrats are clearly done being told that questioning gender ideology — particularly when it affects their children and women’s sports — makes them outsiders in their own party.