1st Congressional District candidate refuses to attend forum over transgender moderator

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A 1st Congressional District candidate said Tuesday he’s refusing to attend a Rhode Island Democratic Women’s Caucus candidate forum next month because it’s being moderated by Rev. Donnie Anderson — a transgender religious leader.

“I do not recognize Reverend Donnie Anderson, a biological male, as a woman in the Democratic Party,” Republican-turned-Democrat Allen Waters wrote to the Women’s Caucus.

Waters said that as a father of “two beloved, Black teenage daughters,” he doesn’t want biological men to “compete with them as women in traditional biological female spaces.”

In response to Waters’ decision not to appear to the July 24 event, Anderson said she’s “disappointed” that he’s “passing on this opportunity to express his views on issues critical to women in Rhode Island, but this is certainly his prerogative.”

Anderson went on to say that Waters went beyond just declining to participate in the forum.

“He intentionally chose to engage in a personal attack on my humanity,” said Anderson. “I am deeply saddened by Mr. Waters’ misinformed and cruel comments that exhibit his perspective on the transgender community.”

“It is comments like his that are devastating our youth that identify as transgender and non-binary,” she added.

Anderson then questioned Waters’ political stance, asking, “In what sense Mr. Waters considers himself a Democrat?” adding that the Democratic Party supports the transgender community.

She’s now asking Waters to recant his statement and “accept responsibility for the damage” it has already done and to apologize to the transgender community.

Waters previously ran as a Republican against Rep. David Cicilline in 2022. He also ran against Sen. Jack Reed for his Senate seat in 2020.