December 8, 2023
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Warns Of The Consequences Of Anti-Trans Legislation
AOC contextualized her remarks, placing the position from conservatives who testified in concert with Republican policies attempting to control the bodies of women
In Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks during the House Oversight Subcommittee on Health hearing, the New York congresswoman warned that if there are rules that mandate genital checks, it could result in people with vaginas having to get their private parts checked.
AOC described this practice as an overzealous attempt to keep trans children from competing with cis-heterosexual children in sports.
AOC contextualized her remarks, placing the position from conservatives who testified in concert with Republican policies attempting to control the bodies of women, saying, “We are talking about opening up all women and girls to genital examinations when they are underage, potentially just because someone can point to someone and say, I don’t think you are a girl,”
Ocasio-Cortez continued, “And we’re saying this in an environment of a post-Dobbs America, where states are criminalizing access to abortion and want nothing more than data on women to figure out when, who’s getting a menstrual cycle, who doesn’t have one, and we’re supposed to believe this is going to make us better and safer?”
Ocasio-Cortez ended her remarks, answering her previous question by saying, “I think not, and, per usual, I don’t believe we’re sitting here on a panel of men that has actually thought about the biology and privacy consequences of all women, trans or cisgendered.”
According to Fox News, the Ohio Senate removed a provision from its state House proposal that barred “biological men” from competing against women, which would have required both “internal and external” exams to confirm a student-athletes’s gender. That provision was eventually replaced with a requirement that student-athletes present a copy of their birth certificate when their gender identity was called into question. Effectively, this would render trans athletes unable to compete against cis athletes, which is likely the intent of the original proposal.
Riley Gaines, the ex-University of Kentucky swimmer who has become a conservative media darling, making several appearances on Fox News and other right-leaning programs, attempted to argue that Pennsylvania Democrat Summer Lee was a misogynist when Lee called her remarks in the hearing transphobic. Gaines responded to Lee, saying, “Inclusion cannot be prioritized over safety and fairness,” Gaines began, “And ranking member Lee, if my testimony makes me ‘transphobic,’ then I believe your opening monologue makes you a misogynist.”
In her statements to the Committee, Lee attempted to show that the hearing was just hatred and bigotry disguised as concern for children and that their alleged concerns for the safety of girls and women were a smokescreen, saying, “While this committee purports to care about the safety of women, in 2021, when the House voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, 80% of the Republican Caucus voted against that law, not a single Republican member of this committee, nor our current Speaker voted for it.”
Lee went on to ask Fatima Goss-Graves, the president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, a series of questions relating to how mandating that transgender youth should have their genitals examined so they can participate in sports as the gender they identify as could open up those athletes to privacy concerns, to which Goss-Graves replied that the idea of genital examination of children deeply concerned her.
Lee would later characterize the hearing on Twitter/X as yet another attempt by the Republican Party to attack trans children, writing, “I would’ve hoped that the 1st Democratic Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing I presided over would be on holding big oil, big pharma or banks accountable for preying on hardworking families. Instead, it’s yet another extremist Republican hearing attacking trans kids. What a cruel, unserious party.”
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