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.”
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This is exactly it. It’s what politics is supposed to be about. AOC gets it. For clear moral issues like this, you can’t back down.
It’s a big reason why Democrats are so weak. Most, especially those in leadership, have given up trying to persuade people by doing the right thing. We need to persuade especially on issues that are inspiring violence and hate on the other side. Taking the other side’s stance, particularly when it’s so clearly on the wrong side of morality/history/humanity, never made sense as a strategy to me. It’s disgusting.