🚨 “Zohran is literally attempting to do what conservatives say we want to do, which is provide gender affirming care to anyone who wants it for free. We're gonna fly people in and pay for their hotel rooms.”
That’s Daniel Goulden, a member of NYC DSA’s Steering Committee, speaking on a panel DSA just uploaded from last month’s Socialism 2025 conference.
Goulden worked on Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, helped write the trans policy platform, and says he regularly meets with Zohran and his staff.
“We collaborated with the Zohran Mamdani campaign on his trans rights platform, and what we explicitly wanted to do was use the power of New York City to provide free gender affirming care—and I say free in case insurance companies decide to boot us off—free gender affirming care not just to people in New York City but across the country.”
“DSA has regular meetings with him, let alone his team. His policy director is my friend. I've been working with his campaign manager for well over a year.”
This isn’t hypothetical. DSA operatives are openly planning to turn New York City into a national hub for trans healthcare—flying people in, paying for hotels, mailing prescriptions across state lines—and doing it on the taxpayer’s dime.
And it’s not just about healthcare. It’s about power.
“With Zohran, we’re in basically the best possible position to seize state power.”
They’re not hiding it. They’re posting it proudly. The Democratic Socialists of America are building a machine—rooted in radicalism, empowered by city government, and led by a man now poised to run the largest city in America.
“We wrote the platform with him… now he’s going to be mayor.”
In this clip, NYC DSA’s Daniel Goulden spells it out. Zohran Mamdani didn’t just accept support—he let DSA write his trans policy platform. Their goal? Turn NYC into the national distribution hub for gender transition procedures.
“What we explicitly wanted to do was use the power of New York City to provide free gender affirming care and I say free in case insurance companies decide to boot us off.. Free gendering affirming care, not just to people in New York City but across the country.”
They're planning to override red states by any means necessary.
“There’s no reason at all that we can’t use telehealth and mailing prescriptions to people across the country to undermine state bans.”
Goulden lays out just how deeply NYC DSA is embedded in Mamdani’s campaign.
“The Zohran campaign was always eager to work with us… the team was so happy to work with us on this.”
“All of a sudden my work shifts from being on the outside to thinking about how to utilize the fairly significant municipal power of New York City.”
“The model we used in New York is 100% replicatable [SIC] both in terms of our trans organizing, but also getting Zohran elected mayor.”
This is the plan. In their own words.
Daniel Goulden starts by griping about a centrist op-ed attacking Zohran—then immediately pivots to bragging about how radical Zohran actually is by framing it as Fox News' worst nightmare.
“Zohran is literally attempting to do what conservatives say we want to do which is provide gender affirming care to anyone who wants it for free. We’re gonna fly people in and pay for their hotel rooms.”
“Zohran is literally attempting to do what conservatives say we want to do… provide gender affirming care to anyone who wants it for free. We’re gonna fly people in and pay for their hotel rooms.”
From there, he explains how Mamdani’s focus on cost of living wasn’t just practical—it was, in his words, the politics of solidarity. By centering shared material struggles, Goulden argues, the campaign automatically reached the most marginalized and built a broader coalition than he thought possible.
“Basically, when you use the politics of solidarity, you are automatically targeting the most marginalized… because the most marginalized communities are experiencing the hellishness of capitalism the most acutely.”
Daniel Goulden calls trans people and undocumented immigrants the “tip of the spear” in DSA’s political project and Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, he says, proved how “solidarity politics” can unify unlikely voters under that banner.
“In language about, you know, trans rights, I always would say, you know, we are the tip of the spear… right now trans people and immigrants are really at the tip of the spear—although that spear is growing by the day.”
“That kind of politics of universal solidarity… has an incredible way of uniting people.”
Goulden even acknowledges that many who voted for Zohran likely don’t align with DSA on gender ideology.
“I'm sure there are people who voted for Zohran who are transphobic… or don't have the best opinions on other stuff.”
But, he says, the campaign made room for them:
“When you have that politics of solidarity, you create room for creating that coalition, you create room for changing people's minds.”
He highlights how Muslim voters and even “reactionary Russians” in Brooklyn voted for Mamdani:
“Parts of Brooklyn that have the worst fascists you’ve ever met… normally they vote for like the worst politician imaginable... those districts voted for Zohran.”
The lesson? Capitalism is the real enemy.
“That was because Zohran led with solidarity politics… and that’s the lesson for us: we are all in this together. The enemy’s name is capitalism. And we have to fight them together.”
Goulden leans into the emotional pitch here—describing fear among trans and immigrant communities, and casting Zohran Mamdani as both a target and a rallying point.
“I have a lot of trans friends who are just terrified right now… and I have a lot of friends who are immigrants who are also terrified… really terrified to step up into the light.”
But in his view, Mamdani’s campaign, backed by DSA, offered more than safety. It offered power.
“For Zohran right now… the Trump administration is like, ‘we’re going to deport him.’ Zohran himself, who’s about to become the mayor of the largest city in the United States, is facing the same attacks that undocumented immigrants just trying to get a job at Home Depot are facing right now.”
“It’s horrible… but it creates a really powerful kind of politics. And it’s something that socialism uniquely as a political construct can do.”
He ends with a striking admission: working on Mamdani’s campaign forced him to rethink how much more organizing and ideological work DSA still has to do.
“After my experience with the Zohran campaign, I'm like, oh no, like we have a lot of work to do… and that’s great.”
For DSA, Mamdani isn’t just a candidate. He’s a catalyst. And what comes next, they’re making clear, is only the beginning.
“New York City could provide trans healthcare for every trans person in the country who… can’t afford it—and it would be a blip on our radar.”
In this clip, Daniel Goulden lays out the next phase of DSA’s project with Zohran Mamdani: governing. And yes—they’re planning to make NYC a national provider of trans healthcare.
“Our population size is like abysmally small… so that means if you want to provide healthcare for trans people, you don’t have to spend that much money.”
The logic is clear: because it’s cheap, they believe NYC can quietly fund trans healthcare nationwide—through city budgeting, telehealth, and shipping prescriptions across state lines.
And DSA has already positioned itself to make it happen.
“DSA has regular meetings with him… his policy director is my friend. I’ve been working with his campaign manager for over a year… I have friends who are in his staff.”
“With Zohran, we’re in basically the best possible position to seize state power that we can be in.”
They’re not just providing volunteers. They’re writing the legislation.
“I’ve looked at Zohran’s policies and I’m like, yeah, these were floating around through chats and message boards for like 5 years before they ended up in here.”
“We need to provide not just the people power, but also the policy chops to get this across… and that’s the most intimidating part—now we have to turn this into reality.”
This is DSA turning message board dreams into city law—via Zohran Mamdani.
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