A difficult task for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., got worse Tuesday as she watched members of her party vote for a bill she attacked at the expense of widespread ridicule.
Ocasio-Cortez’s viral tirade against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act was not enough to convince Democratic allies Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, both of Texas, to vote against the bill. Cuellar and Gonzalez joined 218 House Republicans voted in favor of the bill that seeks to prevent federally funded educational institutions from allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls’ and women’s sports.
For Ocasio-Cortez, the idea of Democratic members of Congress voting for a Republican-backed bill before President-elect Trump even returns to office suggests her party is “not in good shape.”
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“We can’t be ninnies about this,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent on Tuesday. ‘This is just the beginning. Trump hasn’t even been sworn in yet, and if a little sports bill were to cause the Dems to defect, we’re not going to be in good shape.”
Ocasio-Cortez advised Democrats not to be “ninnies” on the same day she delivered a widely derided rant that included multiple unsubstantiated claims and unfinished sentences. Her rant sparked multiple viral comments on social media labeling her as “the dumbest person in Congress.”
For Ocasio-Cortez, it marks a bad start to 2025 after a rough 2024. Despite winning re-election to her seat in the New York House of Representatives, Ocasio-Cortez watched as members of her coalition, “the Squad,” lost their seats lost, including Jamaal. Bowman in New York and Cori Bush in Missouri.
Ocasio-Cortez also lost in her bid to become the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, being passed over by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.
Additionally, Ocasio-Cortez has often been the subject of viral mockery on social media, often for her unchanging stance on transgender inclusion in women’s and girls’ sports.
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In November, Ocasio-Cortez shared again a video of Green Party vice presidential candidate Butch Ware speaking out against transgender inclusion in women’s sports, with the caption: “This ticket is predatory and people deserve better.” The message sparked strong reactions on social media.
“AOC says it’s predatory behavior if you don’t want men to participate in women’s sports. For AOC, recognizing biological reality is ‘predatory’. You know what’s actually predatory? Sexualizing children and normalizing pedophilia,” wrote conservative influencer and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines on X while posting a Fox News Digital article about Ocasio-Cortez’s comments.
Mockery against Ocasio-Cortez intensified weeks after the election when X-users discovered she no longer includes her “she/her” pronouns in her bio.
Ocasio-Cortez is one of several prominent Democrats who continue to strongly support transgender inclusion in women’s sports, even as the issue proved a vulnerability for Democrats in the November election.
Many Democrats who spoke against the bill on Tuesday did not argue with the premise that transgender athletes should be allowed in women’s and girls’ sports. Instead, they argued that the measures preventing transgender inclusion will subject girls to genital examinations and sexual predation, despite the fact that there is no language in the bill suggesting genital examinations for girls in sports.
Ocasio-Cortez included that baseless claim in her rant on Tuesday, but shouted at transgender athletes when she shouted, “Trans girls are girls!” on the floor of the House of Representatives.
In this April 10, 2019 photo, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., listens during a House Financial Services Committee hearing with leaders of major banks on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Ocasio-Cortez previously co-sponsored the Equality Act, which was proposed in 2019 and has undergone revisions that would “force public schools to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender on girls’ sports teams.” In March 2023, Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, made a proposal a resolution “Recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights.”
Unlike Ocasio-Cortez, other Democratic House representatives have publicly withdrawn their support for transgender inclusion, including Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas; and Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y. Yet all these Democrats voted against the bill on Tuesday.
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Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A national exit poll Research from the legislative action committee Concerned Women for America found that 70% of moderate voters view “Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls’ and women’s sports and transgender boys and men using girls’ and women’s restrooms” as important to them considered. . And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was “very important.”
A survey in June conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago asked respondents to share their opinions on whether transgender athletes of both genders should be allowed to compete in sports competitions that correspond with their preferred gender identity rather than their biological sex.
In that survey, 65% responded that this should never or rarely be allowed. When respondents were asked specifically about adult transgender female athletes competing on women’s sports teams, 69% were against it.
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