The right-wing media erupted in excitement on Thursday when numerous social media users noted that U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York had taken her pronouns out of her bio on X, previously known as Twitter. The prevailing view was that Ocasio-Cortez’s choice to eliminate her pronouns highlighted President-elect Donald Trump’s significant win in the 2024 election and marked a pivotal moment in the discourse surrounding “woke” ideology—a term many conservatives use disparagingly to refer to identity politics and progressive beliefs.
A post from the far-right Libs of TikTok account stated, “JUST IN: AOC removed her pronouns from her bio.” Riley Gaines, a swimmer and political activist opposing transgender athletes in women’s sports, commented on X: “They’ll pretend they never embraced (or even celebrated) the insanity. Don’t forget who the compliant, virtue-signaling sheep were.”
The account EndWokeness, which claims to be “Fighting, exposing, and mocking wokeness” and boasts over 3 million followers, tweeted: “2 years ago, AOC posted an apology for forgetting to include pronouns in her bio. She just removed them on X.” Gaines also reacted to that video, stating: “We’re winning and it’s glorious.”
However, some observers pointed out that Ocasio-Cortez had removed her pronouns from her X bio well before Election Day. A screenshot from the Internet Archive revealed that she did not have them in her bio as of July 29. The Daily Dot also reported that the New York congresswoman had cut her pronouns from her bio as early as May. Heading into this year’s election, Republicans heavily focused on cultural issues, criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party for their support of transgender rights and the LGBTQ+ community.
During his September debate with Harris, Trump claimed that she wanted “to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison,” labeling her a radical left liberal. Trump seemed to reference a 2019 survey from the American Civil Liberties Union that Harris filled out during her initial presidential campaign, in which she stated she would use her executive power to ensure that transgender individuals reliant on government medical care, including those in prison, would have access to gender transition-related treatment.
In addition to the debate, Trump’s campaign ads prominently featured cultural war themes. One widely circulated ad stated, “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” Some Democrats have openly acknowledged the effectiveness of Trump’s and the GOP’s messaging strategy, believing it contributed to Harris’s eventual electoral defeat.
“The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left,” Representative Tom Suozzi of New York told The New York Times on Wednesday. “I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports.” Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who ran for president in 2020, shared a similar sentiment, expressing to the Times that Democrats “spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face.
I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
In April 2023, the Biden administration proposed changes to Title IX regarding transgender student athletes. The policy aimed to prevent schools from violating Title IX regulations by enforcing restrictions against trans athletes while also stopping them from “categorically” banning such students from participating on teams aligned with their gender “just because of who they are.”
This proposed change would apply to public K-12 schools as well as colleges, universities, and other federally funded institutions. “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 transgender students’ participation,” according to the Department of Education’s policy statement. Ocasio-Cortez was highly critical of this move, arguing that it contradicted the principles outlined in a January 2021 executive order.
“Absolutely no reason for the Biden admin to do this,” she stated. “It is indefensible and embarrassing. The admin can still walk this back, and they should. It’s a disgrace.”
