JD Vance’s former trans classmate at Yale – and ex-friend – says he’s done a ‘flip’ on every issue

Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance has been very vocal about voting for anti-LGBTQ+ laws. But it turns out he wasn’t always like that, according to his ex-friend Sofia Nelson.

Sofia Nelson is a lawyer who met Vance at Yale Law School and bonded with him over their shared Midwestern, working-class backgrounds, Vance has done a “flipflip on every conceivable issue” since then.

That might come as a surprise to people who have read about Vance’s stance on several issues as well as his strong anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and his support for bills that ban gender affirming care.

What is even more surprising is that Vance’s former friend, with whom Vance was close to for nearly a decade, is transgender.

Nelson – who uses they/them pronouns – was already out when they met Vance and the two quickly became close friends, even making the effort to stay in touch after they left Yale in 2023.

Nelson even attended Vance’s wedding and the pair visited each other several times over the past decade.

But their friendship has changed drastically in recent years. In previous interviews, Nelson said that the Vance they knew is not the same one the public has been introduced to on the campaign trail.

“I’m heartbroken by the transformation that they’ve decided to undergo… The JD that I got to know in law school… was thoughtful and compassionate. We obviously didn’t share a common politics, but growing up in Wayland, Michigan, it was nothing new to me to develop friendships and respect across the political divide,” Nelson told the Detroit Free Press.

Now, Nelson works as a public defender in Detroit who felt lucky to have attended Yale Law School but always hope to go back to Michigan and work in the public sector.

Following Vance’s appointment as the vice-presidential candidate, Sofia Nelson has spoken out about how they believe that Vance “shows a lack of core values or a willingness to turn [his] back on core values to advance [his] career and amass money”.

Though Nelson and Vance were not always in agreement, Vance behaved like “a person who valued decency and had integrity” but now they feel as if the Ohio senator as turned “his back on those things”.

Additionally, Nelson wanted to point out that Vance had a “meaningful and respectful relationship with a trans person” but is now “demonising trans people and trying to prevent parents from accessing medical care for their children”.

Nelson last spoke to Vance in 2021 when Vance’s Twitter (now X) account began to show increasing anti-trans posts and he pledged his support for a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in Arkansas.

“I reached out to him and that was our last substantive conversation,” Nelson said but confirmed that they no longer speak.

During their interview with the Detroit Free Press, Nelson addressed trans kids directly because they were “a trans kid once” and said that anti-trans rhetoric among politicians is simply a campaign tactic.

“It was deeply scary to think that there was something wrong with me that was going to prevent me from leading a full and happy life… so I want trans kids to know that these politicians, they don’t actually think you’re bad. They don’t actually believe there’s anything wrong with you.”

“They’re engaging in opportunism to win elections. I know that because [Vance] was very loving and respectful of a trans person in his life, and is now choosing to use trans kids as a political ploy,” Nelson explained.

But, despite this shift in Vance’s ideology, character, and rhetoric, the Michigan native says that they miss him greatly – or at least they miss who he used to be.