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Watch AOC's Brutal Take Down Of Transphobic Republicans, We're Cheering
We’re here today because there’s a proposal here to further marginalize trans women in sports... I think not!" Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just owned the GOP who are trying to use transphobia to police women’s bodies, and it was glorious to behold.
The representative from New York stood her ground alongside other Democrats during a congressional hearing on Tuesday, where they clashed with Republicans over proposals that would place restrictions on transgender athletes in sports, The Advocate reported.
Not pulling any punches, Ocasio-Cortez said, “We’re here today because there’s a proposal here to further marginalize trans women in sports” before calling out how ridiculous it is to spend so much time on this issue when transgender people make up only one percent of the population and an even smaller amount of athletes.
Targeting trans children for playing sports makes all women, whether trans or cisgender, less safe. Sex testing is regressive, invasive, discriminatory, and a fundamental violation of our privacy as women and as Americans. This is shameful. pic.twitter.com/ikrdhBMfpj
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) December 6, 2023
And because AOC is always brighter than her Republican counterparts, she was able to succinctly point out the reasons: a desire to marginalize the trans community further and control women’s bodies. “Why so much effort and dedication to such a tiny portion of the U.S. population when there virtually is no major issue that this is precipitating?” she said. “And I started to realize that a lot of these proposals involve invasion of privacy of all women.”
While Ocasio-Cortez had the floor, she was able to ask questions of Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, who pointed out the appalling fact that some young athletes would be subject to genital examinations if these proposals were implemented.
“In some states, any individual could challenge whether someone is a girl enough to play,” Gross Graves said. “In some states, it requires actual genital verification, which is shocking.”
Ocasio-Cortez also expressed her concern that this proposal would allow for invasive examinations based on someone's suspicions about another person’s gender.
“And, per usual, I don’t believe we’re sitting in a panel of men that has actually thought of the biology and privacy consequences of all women — trans or cis gender,” she said of the dubious motives of the GOP.
Ocasio-Cortez closed by slamming her Republican colleagues for being hypocrites when they claim these rules would protect women: “...a party that has voted against women’s access to abortion, voted against our right — Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act, voted against the Violence Against Women Act, voted against our right to have access to contraception, and also doesn't even vote for equal funding — equitable funding — in women’s sports and I’m supposed to believe this is who is looking out for my best interest” she said. “I think not.”
That makes us wish AOC could offer scathing critiques of the right-wing transphobes every day!
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Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
