Why This Candidate's Stance on Gay Rights Has Everyone Talking
A super-woke Democrat running for Congress in Washington state has admitted she’s too scared to come out in support of LGBTQ+ rights because it might upset Muslims, even though they account for a tiny fraction of her district.
Melissa Chaudhry, 34, who is running for a second time in Washington’s 9th congressional district after losing her 2024 bid, made the glaring admission in an interview with a local Seattle-based newspaper.
Chaudhry, who took her Muslim Army veteran husband’s last name and wears an Islamic headscarf, or hijab, was asked why she had nothing on her campaign website about LGBTQ+ rights, despite insisting she supported their cause.
“Because a lot of Muslims do not feel that way, unfortunately,” Chaudhry said in her interview with the Stranger last month.
Only 41% of American Muslims believe homosexuality should be accepted by society, compared to 57% of Christians and 82% of Jewish people, according to a 2025 report from the Pew Research Center.
The Seattle metropolitan area, which makes up much of Chaudhry’s district, is only around 2% Muslim, according to the Pew Research Center’s “Religious Landscape Study.”
In contrast, Seattle has one of the largest LGBT+ populations in the country, with approximately 17% of adults identifying as such, according to the latest US Census.
Despite that, Chaudhry insisted she “was careful about her Muslim constituents” in her interview.
Chaudhry’s campaign did not respond immediately to requests for comment, and in the wake of the interview, she has rushed to do damage control in the face of criticism from LGBT+ activists.
“Our community is not expendable. LGBTQ+ rights are not optional. They are foundational to any candidate seeking Democratic support,” wrote Andrew Ashiofu, chair of Washington Stonewall Democrats, on Facebook earlier this month, prompting a lengthy response from Chaudhry.
“If you are queer, and you are wondering if you and your rights are safe with me, I assure you from the bottom of my heart, you are, you have always been, and you always will be,” she wrote.
Chaudhry also insisted that she supports her sister, who is “in a homosexual relationship, happily and committedly so,” and is friends with a “disabled lesbian woman, her partner, and their autistic son,” in her response.
But her reply drew short shrift from Ashiofu.
“I decided not to respond. She’s throwing blame on other people and saying she has LGBTQ+ friends. That’s the same thing as a racist saying, ‘I have black friends,” he told the Stranger.
