AOC removes pronouns from X Bio: What we know

The right-wing media sphere went into a frenzy on Thursday when several social media users pointed out that US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York had removed her pronouns from her bio on X, formerly Twitter.

The overall sentiment was that Ocasio-Cortez’s decision to remove her pronouns from her biography underscored President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the 2024 election and was a focal point of “woke” ideology — a derisive term used by many conservatives to describe identity. politics and progressive values.

“JUST IN: AOC removed her pronouns from her bio,” read a post from the popular far-right Libs of TikTok X account.

Riley Gaines, the swimmer and political activist opposed to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, wrote on X: “They want to pretend they never embraced (or even celebrated) insanity.

“Don’t forget who the docile, virtue-signalling sheep were.”

The account EndWokeness, which says it is “Fighting, exposing, and mocking wakeness” and has more than 3 million followers, wrote: “2 years ago AOC posted an apology for forgetting to put pronouns in her bio. She has just removed them on X.”

Gaines also responded to that video, writing, “We’re winning and it’s glorious.”

However, other observers noted that Ocasio-Cortez removed her pronouns from her X biography well before Election Day.

She didn’t have them in her bio on July 29, according to a screenshot of the lawmaker’s X account taken on the Internet Archive. And The Daily Dot reported that the New York congresswoman had removed her pronouns from her biography back in May.

Republicans leaned heavily into the culture war heading into this year’s election, hammering Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party over their support for transgender rights and the LGBTQ+ community.

During his September debate against Harris, Trump claimed that Harris wanted “to perform transgender surgeries on illegal aliens who are in prison. This is a radical left-wing liberal who would do this.”

Trump appeared to be referring to a 2019 American Civil Liberties Union survey that Harris completed during his first presidential campaign. In the study, Harris said she would use her executive authority to ensure that transgender people who relied on the government for medical care, including those in prison, would have access to gender reassignment treatment.

In addition to the debate, Trump also dug into the culture war in his campaign ads. Among the most widely circulated ads this election season was one from the Trump campaign that said “Kamala is for them/them. President Trump is for you.”

Some Democrats have publicly acknowledged the effectiveness of Trump and the GOP’s messaging strategy and believe it is one of the reasons Harris ultimately lost the election.

“Democrats need to stop pandering to the far left,” said Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York New York Times on Wednesday. “I don’t want to discriminate against anyone, but I don’t think biological boys should play girls’ sports.”

Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who launched an unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, echoed this view, telling Times that Democrats “spend far too much time trying not to offend anyone instead of being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face. I have two little girls. I don’t want them being run over on a playground by a man or former man. athlete, but as a Democrat I must be afraid to say so.”

In April 2023, the Biden administration proposed changes to Title IX involving transgender student athletes.

The policy would prevent schools from violating Title IX by enforcing restrictions on trans athletes, while barring them from “categorically” banning such students from participating on gender-conforming teams “just because of who they are .”

There was a caveat within the proposed amendment that would apply to public K-12 schools in addition to colleges, universities and other institutions that receive federal funding.

“The proposed rule also recognizes that in some cases, particularly in competitive high school and college athletic environments, some schools may adopt policies that limit the participation of transgender students,” according to the policy statement from the Department of Education.

Ocasio-Cortez was highly critical, saying the policy was the opposite of what was outlined in that January 2021 executive order.

“Absolutely no reason for the Biden administration to do this,” she said. “It’s indefensible and embarrassing. The administrator can still go back, and they should. It’s a disgrace.”

Update 11/14/24, 10:48 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information and additional context.

Update 15/11/24, 03:21: This article was updated with additional information and additional context.