Riley Gaines urges AOC to change position on trans athletes in women’s sports

As the national debate over trans inclusion in girls’ and women’s sports has reached a boiling point in recent weeks, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has been uncharacteristically quiet on the issue. Now, conservative influencer Riley Gaines has extended an invitation to the congresswomen to join the other side of the issue. 

“I absolutely believe that AOC, of course she has a platform, she’s in a position of influence and power, and I believe she could influence the Democratic members to cross the line and return to sanity. I do believe there is an obligatory responsibility from every member of congress,” Gaines told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. 

Gaines believes that if Ocasio-Cortez were to suddenly take a stand against trans inclusion in girls’ and women’s sports that it would be “performative” but that it would still benefit the congresswoman’s political reputation. 

“While I don’t agree with many other things outside of this issue that AOC stands for, I would certainly applaud her or any Democrat [for speaking out against trans inclusion],” Gaines said. 

“I don’t believe AOC is out of contention for running for president in 2028, and if that’s the case, [trans inclusion in women’s sports] is certainly something she would want to distance herself from.” 

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Ocasio-Cortez last spoke out on the issue directly when the House of Representatives voted on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act on Jan. 14. That day, she gave an impassioned, controversial speech on the House floor, where she claimed that the bill would empower child sexual predators and that “trans girls are girls.” 

The speech ignited immense backlash and mockery, including by Democrats, one of whom told Fox News Digital they and others were unregistering from the party in response. 

Since then, President Donald Trump has passed an executive order banning trans inclusion in women’s and girls’ sports nationally, and the NCAA has amended its gender eligibility to comply with the order. Meanwhile, multiple Democrat states have openly defied Trump, prompting federal investigations against those states and potentially cuts to funding in response. 

On Monday, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act will get a vote on the Senate floor. 

Ocasio-Cortez has not weighed in on the issue, despite being a notable advocate for trans inclusion in the past. She has only referenced a recent exchange between Trump and Maine Governor Janet Mills on the issue with a Bluesky post that says, “that’s how it’s done.” However, she hasn’t addressed Trump’s order or the issue of trans inclusion as whole in detail. 

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During a virtual town hall hosted by Ocasio-Cortez on Feb. 21, she did not address the issue despite Fox News Digital submitting a question on it. Ocasio-Cortez’s office has not responded to multiple requests for comment on the issue by Fox News Digital over email. 

Ocasio-Cortez did mention the overall subject of Democrat support for the trans community during an interview on “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart” podcast on Jan. 23. 

“When we allow ourselves to constantly be distracted by these culture wars around trans people, it’s a new thing every day, and the answer isn’t that we just let those people be attacked, it’s that we say, ‘What are you doing, man?’ I think we need to make standing up for those folks just such an afterthought that it’s not even a debate,” Ocasio-Cortez said. 

“Like, we need to understand and see the bait for what it is, but we don’t take the bait by letting those rights just erode and go by the wayside.”

But Gaines is not surprised by Ocasion-Cortez’s, and other Democrats’, sudden distance from the issue of trans inclusion in girls’ sports.

“We shouldn’t be surprised this is the position AOC is taking,” Gaines said. “Number one, cancel culture is losing its grip, and number two, it means they’re trying to distance themselves from their voting records or whatever that may be, because they know that this is a losing issue. And it shows they just have no conviction. From the inception, this issue has been a farce.” 

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Ocasio-Cortez has previously voted in favor of multiple bills that would enable trans athletes to play in women’s and girls’ sports nationwide, including the Equality Act and the Transgender Bill of Rights. The congresswomen previously suggested that the Green Party was “predatory” in an X post responding to 2024 Green Party VP nominee Butch Ware speaking out against trans inclusion in women’s sports. 

Before that, Ocasio-Cortez even criticized former President Joe Biden, who made multiple efforts to enable trans inclusion, for not doing enough to enable it. 

In April 2023, when Biden proposed a Title IX change that would outlaw bans on trans athletes in girls’ sports but would allow for bans on students “based on a set of sex-related criteria unique to their community,” Ocasio-Cortez called it a “disgrace.”

“Absolutely no reason for the Biden admin to do this. It is indefensible and embarrassing,” she wrote on X that month. “The admin can still walk this back, and they should. It’s a disgrace.” 

However, the issue of trans inclusion in women’s and girls’ sports has become a widely opposed issue over the last year, and data suggests  that it even affected the outcome of the 2024 election. 

A recent New York Times/Ipsos survey found that the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don’t think transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women’s sports. 

“Thinking about transgender female athletes — meaning athletes who were male at birth but who currently identify as female — do you think they should or should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports?” the survey asked. 

Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports. Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democrat, 67% said that transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women. 

A national exit poll conducted by the Concerned Women for America legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of “Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls’ and women’s sports and of transgender boys and men using girls’ and women’s bathrooms” as important to them. 

Additionally, 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was “very important.”

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