AOC Calls Out Democrats Retreating on Trans Rights: “They’re Wrong”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earned praise for defending trans rights and linking attacks on them to broader threats to bodily autonomy.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is drawing praise from LGBTQ advocates for criticizing Democrats who have sought to distance themselves from transgender rights.
At a town hall hosted by the progressive campus group More Perfect University, a transgender student from the University of Southern Maine asked Ocasio-Cortez to respond to concerns that some trans people “feel that we have been abandoned by the Democratic Party, that we are a losing issue, that it’s not worth defending us.”
Since the 2024 election, when Donald Trump attacked Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in an ad targeting her support for gender-affirming care for trans prisoners, Democrats have struggled to agree on how — or whether — to address transgender issues on the campaign trail.
“They’re wrong,” Ocasio-Cortez said of Democrats who have seemingly abandoned the trans community.
“First and foremost, I want to just let you know how shameful and sorry I am that there are people out there that scare so easily after an election,” she said. “And I think it’s what people hate most about politics, which is politicians who will jump on this side or that side of the line at a moment’s notice.”
She also warned the audience of ulterior motives behind the attacks, saying that conservatives’ focus on transgender issues and use of anti-trans attack ads are a “strategic” choice.
“It’s not just about trans girls in sports, it’s about all girls in education,” she said, adding that by attacking Title IX — the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education — Republicans are trying “to get everyone on board with supporting defunding their own civil rights.”
She explained that Title IX provides a mechanism for women to report campus assaults and noted that the Trump administration has “quietly defunded the civil rights division of enforcement in the administration on Title IX.”
“So understand that when they attack trans girls in sports, they’re also attacking all women’s ability to stand up against their abusers, their rapists, and their assaulters on campuses across America,” Ocasio-Cortez told the questioner. “That’s why I think it’s very important for all of us to understand and to feel and to know that our fight is united.”
The New York congresswoman also said she doesn’t support transgender rights solely to protect her own rights as a cisgender woman, adding: “I support the rights of trans women because I’m a girl’s girl. And I think that all of our bodily autonomy is tied together.”
She also linked the crackdown on gender-affirming care to increasing restrictions on abortion.
“At the end of the day, we need to have whatever happens in a doctor’s office — whether you are a man, woman, cisgender, trans, whatever it is — that it is your medical right, that that’s your autonomy, we have the right not to be discriminated against,” she said. “And when it comes to the specifics of these issues, you can allow sports authorities, who are the experts in these things, medical professionals, the trans community, everyone else, to come together and come to a reasonable agreement on this that works for everyone.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks earned praise from transgender activists who have been critical of other Democrats’ approach to trans issues.
“See how she connected it to shared values,” Gillian Branstetter, a transgender communication strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in a post sharing a clip of Ocasio-Cortez’s response. “See how she framed it in a way favorable to herself and trans people simultaneously. See how she didn’t spend 10 minutes clearing her throat over sports.”
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