Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has earned praise for her response to a question on trans rights during a town hall hosted by the progressive campus group More Perfect University.
At the organization’s Students vs. Billionaires town hall in Maine on Thursday, a trans student from the University of Southern Maine asked for Ocasio-Cortez’s response to the fact that “a lot of trans people in America feel that we have been abandoned by the Democratic Party, that we are a losing issue, that it’s not worth defending us.”
The woman was referring to the fact that many trans advocates feel some Democrats have missed the mark on trans issues, or in some cases have actively made decisions that hurt the trans community in an attempt to defend themselves against Republican attacks. Since the 2024 election, Democrats have disagreed on the effect of the GOP’s anti-trans ads, with some suggesting the need to throw trans people under the bus in order to win future elections.
Without hesitation, Ocasio-Cortez responded, “They’re wrong.”
…
I suspect that the majority of voters would prefer a policy of tolerance over the Republican party’s performative cruelty, but “we should treat these harmless eccentrics with basic human dignity” is one thing while transgender participation in sports or permanent procedures done on children are another.
Puberty is permanent, you nasty wad of shoe gum. The wrong puberty causes changes that, at best, have to be repaired with surgery, some changes are irreversible, and the worst result of the wrong puberty is suicidal ideation that some trans kids don’t survive. Puberty blockers are the only non-permanent physical option for trans kids, and the years those kids spend waiting for the adults to let them go through the right puberty they’re never getting back. And there’s social and emotional consequences to delaying puberty. No teenager is just rolling up and getting HRT without an entire care team approving it and regret rates for kids who medically transition is vanishingly low - you’re advocating for 100 trans kids to suffer and possibly die by suicide to protect maybe one cis kid from making a mistake.