Since 2023, there has been a rise in anti-LBGTQ+ bills across the U.S. being proposed, and with the current Trump Administration, the attacks on the trans community have only intensified. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) shares a message of support for the trans community on TikTok after being asked, “What do you have to say to trans youth right now?”
In response, AOC says, “I want to say that I know this time is completely terrifying for so many people, and it feels hard to know where your place is, especially in politics, where it feels like people in both parties are blaming you for everything that’s happening.”
She continues, “I just want you to know that they couldn’t be more wrong, and you are fine just the way you are, and in a time when it’s hard to know who stands with you, I want you to know that I stand with you, and everyone who wants to be mean shouldn’t be mean around me.”
AOC has been a consistent supporter of trans rights. In 2023, she commented on the ongoing debate about banning transgender women from women’s sports, and last year, she spoke out against trans toilet bans, saying they could endanger “all women and girls” via a report from PinkNews.
The outlet also references how AOC has used her own experiences to state how the LGBTQ+ community doesn’t pose a threat to women.
“When you actually look at who is committing this abuse, it’s majority straight men,” says AOC, referencing when she was a teenager, the first time she was harassed by a man.
“Many of these disgusting and insinuating attacks on trans and LGBT people are actually projections of what predatory cisgender, and often straight, men do when left in the presence of women,” says AOC.
She has also held the Democratic Party accountable in supporting the LGBTQ+ community by telling the party to “throw a damn punch” following the passage of an anti-trans sports bill through the U.S. House of Representatives in January of 2025 via a report from Them.
Photo courtesy of social media
