Only one has gone on record about participating in the discussion.

Bloomberg Apologized to Trans Leaders, but Who Was on the Call? Here’s What We Know.

Mike Bloomberg isn’t Melissa Sklarz’s first pick for president. Still, she reluctantly jumped on a call with him and other trans people this week to hear his apology, she has confirmed.

Sklarz, a transgender woman and a longtime LGBTQ advocate, was among a handful of prominent trans people to engage with the former New York City Mayor following the circulation of two videos in which he used dehumanizing language to talk about trans people.

“As a long time activist, I wanted to at least hear what Mayor Bloomberg wanted to say,” Sklarz tells NewNowNext. “It’s rare to see presidential candidates apologizing to transgender people for anything.”

Others trans advocates who joined the conversation with Bloomberg did not wish to make themselves known because they did not want to be seen as endorsing his campaign. However, those reportedly included notable activists from the TransLatin@ Coalition, Freedom for All Americans, and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE).

Of those groups, only NCTE commented on the call, declining to confirm their participation.

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“The National Center for Transgender Equality Action Fund has had conversations with nearly a dozen presidential campaigns to help them better understand issues facing trans people,” the organization said in a statement to NewNowNext. “We do not publicly discuss these interactions, with the exception so far of posted videos with nine candidates at TransFormTheWhiteHouse.org. We have not endorsed any candidate, but want to stress that the current administration is openly hostile to trans people and has enacted policies that are dangerous and disgraceful.”

Sources tell NewNowNext that about eight transgender advocates were on the call.

On Thursday, many speculated that HRC had been involved in the apology after the organization criticized Bloomberg and then praised him for apologizing. Lucas Acosta, national press secretary for HRC, confirmed that the group was not involved with the call.

The activists were sought out after two videos surfaced, one from 2016 and other from last year, in which Bloomberg refers to transgender people as “it” and calls trans women “men in dresses.”

“It was a poor attempt to describe how some who oppose transgender equality think about this issue—and those words do not reflect my unwavering support for equality for transgender Americans,” Bloomberg said in an exclusive statement to NewNowNext. “I want to offer my sincerest apologies to the members of the transgender community.”

Bloomberg said he had heard from San Francisco Mayor London Breed (pictured below) that his comments were hurtful. Breed’s office did not respond to a request from NewNowNext to comment.

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Sklarz says Bloomberg spent at least 30 minutes on the call before he was forced to leave to return to work. Bloomberg fielded two questions from trans advocates before turning it over to staff.

“He apologized,” she recalls. “He gave an overview over his perspective, his long career of working working with minority communities, working with LGBT people. It got to the point when he was done and there was time for questions. The listeners on the call got to ask two questions and then apparently there was time for a third, and he was gone… so he did most of the talking.”

Bloomberg has faced a barrage of criticism from LGBTQ advocates in recent weeks. In addition to his comments on transgender people, one of his campaign accounts sent out a homophobic satirical tweet suggesting his contender Bernie Sanders wanted to see Vladimir Putin shirtless. That tweet has since been deleted.

On Friday, the campaign found itself facing fresh criticism after its North Carolina state director, James “Smuggie” Mitchell, manipulated the pronunciation of Pete Buttigieg’s last name to joke about the fact that he is gay.

Sklarz remembers watching Bloomberg sign nondiscrimination protections for transgender New Yorkers into law in 2002, after they had been stalled for months. She believes that the former mayor has good intentions despite disagreeing with his word choice about trans people.

“His language might be insensitive,” she says. “When we needed him in New York to support our civil rights, he was there for us.”