Riley Gaines didn’t let Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., off the hook for not using the right pronouns anymore.
The congresswoman was the subject of trending conversation on social media on Thursday when X users discovered that she no longer includes her pronouns “she/her” in her bio. Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer and OutKick contributor, got in on the mockery of Ocasio-Cortez on X with multiple posts.
“They’ll pretend they never embraced (or even celebrated) the insanity. Don’t forget who the compliant, virtue-signaling sheep were,” Gaines wrote in response to a post that claimed Ocasio-Cortez took the pronouns out of her bio before May of this year.
Gaines later responded to a video that showed Ocasio-Cortez previously apologizing for not including pronouns in her bio next to a photo that showed they were no longer there.
“We’re winning and its glorious,” Gaines wrote.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks onstage during the first day of the Democratic National Convention at United Center in Chicago on Aug. 19. ( Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Then even later on Thursday, Gaines made one more effort to mock Ocasio-Cortez in a solo post.
“How will we know what to call AOC now that her pronouns in her bio are gone?!?!?!,” Gaines wrote.
Gaines previously lambasted Ocasio-Cortez for her stance on trans athletes in women’s sports. The Democratic congresswoman has been a frequent advocate for transgender rights and trans inclusion in women’s sports during her tenure. Ocasio-Cortez recently spoke out against Green Party vice presidential candidate Butch Ware for saying he did not believe trans athletes should play in women’s sports, calling the ticket “predatory.”
“AOC says it’s predatory behavior to not want men competing in women’s sports. To AOC, acknowledging biological reality is ‘predatory’ You know what’s actually predatory? Sexualizing children and normalizing pedophilia,” Gaines wrote on X while posting a Fox News Digital article about Ocasio-Cortez’ comments.
Ocasio-Cortez has taken a partisan stance in her support of transgender rights and protections.
After the Biden-Harris administration passed a sweeping reform to Title IX in April that aimed to provide more protection for gender identity in schools and universities, Ocasio-Cortez argued the reform did not go far enough in favor of transgender people and, specifically, transgender athletes who want to compete in women’s sports.
“Absolutely no reason for the Biden admin to do this. It is indefensible and embarrassing. The admin can still walk this back, and they should. It’s a disgrace,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in response to a report that the change would allow schools to bar transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ sports.
The administration issued a sweeping rule that clarified that Title IX’s ban on “sex” discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and “pregnancy or related conditions.”
And while the administration insisted the regulation does not address athletic eligibility, multiple experts presented evidence to Fox News Digital in June that it would ultimately put more biological men in women’s sports.
Still, that wasn’t good enough for Ocasio-Cortez.
Former competitive swimmer Riley Gaines speaks during a campaign rally for former President Trump at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on Aug. 23. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
Ocasio-Cortez has also co-sponsored the Equality Act, which was proposed in 2019 and has had 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, advocated for a transgender bill of rights, proposing a resolution “recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights.”
The resolution specifically called for a federal law to ensure that biological men can “participate in sports on teams and in programs that best align with their gender identity [and] use school facilities that best align with their gender identity.”
Meanwhile, Gaines has passionately fought against trans inclusion in women’s sports as a former college swimmer who infamously tied with trans athlete Lia Thomas at the NCAA championships in 2022.
Gaines shared her harrowing recollection of her experience being forced to share a locker room with Thomas at a Trump campaign rally on Oct. 23.
“I could share the grotesque details of what it was like being forced to undress, inches away from a 6-foot-4 man who watched us strip down to nothing, while he did the same, exposing his fully-intact naked male body,” Gaines said. “There are no words to describe the violation and the betrayal, the humiliation that we felt.”
Gaines leads a lawsuit against the NCAA with other female athletes, accusing the governing body of violating their Title IX rights due to its policies on gender identity.
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Riley Gaines is sworn in during a House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, details the shock Gaines and other swimmers felt when they learned they would have to share a locker room with Thomas at the 2022 championships in Atlanta. It documents a number of races they swam with Thomas, including the 200-yard final in which Thomas and Gaines tied for fifth but Thomas, not Gaines, was handed the fifth-place trophy.
Meanwhile, many other Democrats have backed off from their support for transgender inclusion in women’s sports prior to and after the election.
Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass, and Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., spoke out against trans inclusion in a New York Times article.
Moulton’s comments have incited a flury of backlash against him from Democratic allies who have deemed his words “transphobic.” Still, Moulton has only doubled-down on the comments amid the controversy.
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