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WHAT GRAHAM PLATNER SAID WHEN A TRANS MAINER ASKED: ‘WILL YOU STAND
UP FOR ME?’  
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Julia Conley
October 29, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ “I believe that you are a better person than you once were
because I am a better person than I once was,” said the potential
voter at a campaign stop. _

Graham Platner at the oyster farm he helps run off Frenchman Bay in
Maine. He is running for the U.S. Senate in Maine as a Democrat. ,
Greta Rybus for The New York Times

 

In an exchange that went viral on social media
[[link removed]] Tuesday, US Senate
[[link removed]] candidate Graham Platner
offered reassurance to a transgender Mainer
[[link removed]]
who asked whether he would “fight” alongside her and other LGBTQ
[[link removed]]+ people in the face of
attacks from the right.

The woman, identified as Sami, asked Platner at a packed campaign
event in Damariscotta, Maine [[link removed]]:
“If I stand with you, will you fight with me? Will you stand up for
me?”

Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer who launched
[[link removed]] his Democratic
primary campaign in August in hopes of ultimately challenging Sen.
Susan Collins [[link removed]]
(R-Maine) for her seat in 2026, answered that he firmly believes
“that every single American has the right to live the life they want
to live in their own body as they see fit,” and emphasized what he
views as his “responsibility” as a straight, white, cisgender
male, to defend the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

“I get to put myself out there in ways that other people don’t,”
said Platner. “I’m doing this because I know that I can say
things, I know that I can have conversations, I know that I can knock
on doors in places that a lot of other people can’t have access to,
that a lot of other people won’t feel safe in.”

“Yes, I will absolutely stand next to you, and if we ever have to go
knock doors together, I’m happy to stand by your side,” he added.

 
Sami’s question came after Platner’s campaign garnered national
attention over deleted Reddit posts from his past, in which he used
the word “gay” in a derogatory way and made other offensive
comments, and a skull tattoo he got while in the Marines that some
said resembled a Nazi symbol.

Platner has said he wasn’t aware of the resemblance and had the
tattoo covered up with another image recently, and has apologized for
the Reddit posts, saying
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at another crowded town hall last week that he “used to hold
different opinions.”

“I also grew,” he said. “I met new people. I learned of other
people’s experiences. I realized... that the more open I could be to
listen to other people’s stories, the more open I was willing to
be—to extend compassion and empathy to others.”

Sami referenced the controversy, telling Platner, “I believe that
you are a better man than you once were in the past because I’m a
better person than I was in the past.”

Alex Seitz-Wald, deputy editor of the _Midcoast Villager_, said
[[link removed]] the exchange
displayed how Platner is “getting people to forgive him,” and
spoke to Sami at the campaign event as she was “signing a volunteer
form” to help the candidate’s campaign.

Platner’s response, said
[[link removed]] Sami, was
“what I hoped to get.”

“It’s very easy for a lot of politicians to sweep us under the
rug,” she added.

President Donald Trump’s attacks on LGBTQ+ rights hit transgender
Maine residents earlier this year, with the White House
[[link removed]] threatening to cut
federal funding to the state unless Gov. Janet Mills
[[link removed]] complied with
his executive order using his administration’s interpretation of
Title IX to block transgender girls and women from competing as female
athletes on school sports teams.

Trump agreed
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to halt the funding freeze after the state sued his administration.

Sami said she had been “really impressed” with Mills’ fight
against Trump. The governor announced her Senate run earlier this
month after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
[[link removed]] (D-NY) called on her
to join the primary race.

“I voted for her for governor, but not for this,” said Sami. “I
don’t think she has the ability to make change.”

Platner’s campaign has garnered attention not just for the recent
controversies, but for his outspoken advocacy for working-class
families and policy proposals
[[link removed]] like Medicare for All
[[link removed]] and a billionaire
minimum tax, his conviction
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“the oligarchy [[link removed]] is the
enemy,” his statement
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that he would not support Schumer as the party’s leader if he wins
the Senate seat, and his unequivocal condemnation
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for Israel’s assault on Gaza
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At the campaign event in Damariscotta, Platner described himself as a
“New Deal Democrat” and told
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people that “we cannot be tricked into pointing fingers left and
right when the only direction to be pointing fingers is up.”

In recent days, numerous polls
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have shown Platner leading
[[link removed]] Mills by a wide
margin in the primary race—while one survey found
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Mills five points ahead of him—and Maine voters have packed
gymnasiums and theaters for his campaign events.

Seitz-Wald reported
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event in Damariscotta on Monday, Platner fielded “eight questions
from the audience, one on Reddit posts, none on tattoo.”

_Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams._
 

* Graham Platner
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* Maine
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* Senate race
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* LBGTQ
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