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AOC: ‘BIGOTED FOLKS’ LOVE TRANS SPORTS BAN  
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Julia Conley
January 14, 2025
Common Dreams
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_ "Los Angeles is on fire right now, and this is the number one
priority this majority has," said the congresswoman. _

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times

 

While Republicans claimed a bill restricting transgender girls'
participation in school sports was aimed at protecting "our culture
and civilization" on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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legislation benefits the corporate class as it distracts from true
life-threatening emergencies faced by communities across the country.

"Thank you for your concern about women for the first time that I've
seen," said the New York Democrat on the House floor, noting that
Republicans have consistently voted against the Violence Against Women
Act and backed abortion bans that have stripped women of the ability
to control their own bodies proven deadly
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But contrary to the GOP's claims that barring transgender girls and
women from playing on sports teams that align with their gender will
protect girls from assault, Ocasio-Cortez suggested, the biggest
beneficiaries of the legislation include corporate executives whose
companies do far more harm to American families than transgender
athletes.

"I know who loves this bill," said the congresswoman. "Yes, bigoted
folks love this bill. Assaulters love this bill. But also, CEOs love
this bill. Because Los Angeles 
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right now, and this is the number one priority this majority has."

The bill passed 218-206, with the entire Republican caucus supporting
it and all but two Democrats voting no. If the legislation is signed
into law, schools that receive federal funding would be barred from
allowing transgender girls from playing on girls' sports teams.

Republicans have poured $111 million on political ads regarding the
issue in the past year, as communities in the Southeast have suffered
catastrophic hurricane damage
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by 18%.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) agreed with Ocasio-Cortez's comments
about the distraction caused by the transgender sports bill.

"Republicans fearmonger about the trans community to divert attention
from the fact they have no real solutions to help everyday
Americans," said
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"Transgender students, like all students, they deserve the same
opportunity as their peers to learn teamwork, to find belonging and to
grow into well-rounded adults through sports."

Ocasio-Cortez added that the bill, which lacks an enforcement
mechanism, would open the door to "genital examinations" of student
athletes as it would force schools to confirm the sex assigned at
birth of each member of a school sports team.

"What this also opens the door for is for women to try to perform a
very specific kind of femininity for the very kind of men who are
drafting this bill, and to open up questioning of who is a woman
because of how we look, how we present ourselves, and yes, what we
choose to do with our bodies," said Ocasio-Cortez.

The so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act was the
subject of a letter
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by more than 400 civil society groups on Monday, who urged members of
Congress to reject the "discriminatory proposal."

"Although the authors of the legislation represent themselves as
serving the interests of cisgender girls and women, this legislation
does not address the longstanding barriers all girls and women have
faced in their pursuit of athletics," said the groups, led by the
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "We firmly believe
that an attack on transgender youth is an attack on civil rights."

_Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

* AOC
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* Transgender Rights
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* republican ideologists
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