On Tuesday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) (D-N.Y.) opined that not allowing biological males who “identify” as females to compete in athletic competitions against females is not only transphobic, but potentially racist against black women. The far-left congresswoman made the remarks during a House hearing on potential changes to Title IX.
While questioning transgender and women’s activist Fatima Goss Graves (an obviously friendly witness), AOC used the occasion to expound on her theories about why not allowing males to compete against females in scholastic sports is a civil rights issue.
“I want to dive a little bit more deeply into why this issue with targeting trans women in sports is particularly problematic,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “not just for trans girls, but for all of us. We’re here today because there’s a proposal here, and there are several proposals here to further marginalize trans women in sports.”
AOC mentioned a provision in a 2022 Ohio attempt to protect girls from male incursions into female athletics that would have allowed for genital inspections. The provision was removed, but that didn’t stop AOC or Graves from using it as a cudgel to make their point.
“Enforcing trans-exclusionary sports policies in women and girls’ school sports programs often relies upon dangerous practices known as ‘sex verification’ or ‘sex testing’ that harm all women and girls,” Graves charged in her written testimony. “These dangerous and discredited practices range from collecting sensitive medical records to needless and traumatizing genital examinations, creating new risks for harassment and assault of student athletes.” (Emphasis in original.)
In the hearing, in response to an AOC question on the subject of these alleged “genital examinations,” Graves answered: “It’s terrible…. In some states, any individual could challenge whether someone is a girl enough to play. In some states, it requires actual genital verification, which is shocking.”
AOC inferred that such a provision would create some sort of underage peep show for athletics officials.
“So we’re seeing here in this guise, under the guise of not only trying to further marginalize trans women and girls, we are talking about opening up all women and girls to genital examinations when they are underage,” she concluded.
AOC is still lamenting that Roe v. Wade was overturned: “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?”
Protecting girls against male incursion into female sports is sexist, the congresswoman claimed.
“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 cis-gender, here.”
And also, somehow, racist.
AOC asked: “Miss Goss Graves, in addition to that, are there certain groups more likely to face discrimination under these bans and what you were speaking to particularly when it comes to black women and girls?”
“We have seen that there are examples of black women who are even professional athletes whose bodies have been more examined and demonized,” Graves answered. “We’ve seen that with my fan favorite Serena Williams, whose body is often talked about. That’s sort of challenging them for who they are. If it is codified into law, it is something that we would expect to see more of.
Always, when confronted with issues that they cannot reasonably defend on their merits, fanatical leftists such as AOC will pull out the race card in attempting to make their case. True racism is ugly, and no one wants to be called a racist, after all, so it’s a great way of making an opponent stop arguing.
The most unfortunate thing about using racism in this way is that it devalues what true racism is. It’s the same thing that happened when career criminal George Floyd was held up as a Rosa Parks-level racial martyr, leading to riots all over America. They’ve done it with issues as diverse as climate change, Covid, social-media bias, and now even transgenderism. Eventually, people become numb to the allegation — and that’s when true racism can become dangerous.
