MIchael Bloomberg speaking at Bermuda's New York Forum in March 2019 (YouTube/BDA)

Democratic candidate Michael Bloomberg, who is attempting to defend his LGBT+ record after calling transgender people “it”, is selling t-shirts on his website that say “protect trans rights”.

The t-shirts are on sale for $22, and feature the slogan “protect trans rights” in the pink, white and blue colours of the trans pride flag.

Underneath the slogan is Bloomberg’s own slogan: “Mike Bloomberg 2020.”

Bloomberg’s website makes it clear that the campaign will not profit from sales of the t-shirt.

Bloomberg’s comments calling trans people “it” and “some guy in a dress” were made at a business forum in March 2019, when Bloomberg chided the Democrats for their focus on social issues.

A video of Bloomberg making the comments resurfaced today.

The billionaire businessman, a late entrant in the Democratic primaries, said that “you can understand where somebody like Trump comes from” and suggested that a candidate who vocally supports trans rights was someone bound to lose.

“If your conversation during a presidential election is about some guy wearing a dress and whether ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’ can go to the locker room with their daughter, that’s not a winning formula with most people,” he said.

“They care about health care, they care about education, they care about safety and all of those kinds of things. And some of these social issues… we’re focusing on a lot of things that have little relevance to people who are trying to live in a world that is changing because of technology, communications and things like that.”

He continued: “So you can understand where somebody like Trump comes from. You can understand – if you look at the Democratic Party, they are so far left that two years ago, there was nobody on their side that would take these positions.

“And today, virtually all of the candidates for president in the Democratic Party have been so progressive – I don’t know what progressive means, but they are in a place where some of the American public is. And it remains to be seen if the majority of the electorate is.”

Bloomberg was a firm supporter of LGBT+ rights while serving as New York City mayor and has said he hopes to carry that through to the White House with a “comprehensive policy to ensure LGBTQ+ equality”.