Former collegiate swimmer and conservative activist Riley Gaines recently sounded off on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after the congresswoman removed pronouns from her bio on X after she had been advocating for transgender athletes. Gaines mocked AOC over the move, which seemingly suggests the progressive “Squad” member is no longer as committed to the leftist social cause as she once was.
“They’ll pretend they never embraced (or even celebrated) the insanity. Don’t forget who the compliant, virtue-signaling sheep were,” Gaines said, responding to a claim that Ocasio-Cortez took the pronouns out of her social media bio earlier this year. The former University of Kentucky Swimmer then responded to a clip of AOC previously apologizing for not including pronouns in her bio. “We’re winning and its glorious,” Gaines said, adding a phot showing the pronouns removed.
Continuing to call out Ocasio-Cortez, Gaines later wrote, “How will we know what to call AOC now that her pronouns in her bio are gone?!?!?!” Gaines has long criticized AOC over her stance toward transgender athletes participating in women’s sports. The New York Democrat had previously slammed Butch Ware, a Green Party vice presidential candidate, who suggested his stance was “predatory.”
“AOC says it’s predatory behavior to not want men competing in women’s sports. To AOC, acknowledging biological reality is ‘predatory’ You know what’s actually predatory? Sexualizing children and normalizing pedophilia,” Gaines wrote on social media, calling out AOC’s comments toward the Green Party candidate’s opinion on the issue.
Ocasio-Cortez has also voiced criticism toward her own party, when the Biden-Harris administration passed reforms to Title IX earlier this year that would allow schools to prevent transgender athletes from participating in female athletic events. “Absolutely no reason for the Biden admin to do this. It is indefensible and embarrassing. The admin can still walk this back, and they should. It’s a disgrace,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
The American Tribune reported on comments from Gaines earlier, emphasizing that it is time to “fight back” as she filed a major lawsuit against the NCAA. “It was time someone took action. I thought to myself for so long, ‘I wish someone would sue,’” Gaines said. “That’s how we win, someone has to sue – never once occurring to me that I could be a part of this, I could really help spearhead this along with ICONS and 15 other athletes that signed onto this lawsuit.”
She continued, “I realized, [it is] us. We can fight back. It’s what the left does so well. The other side, they throw around lawsuits like it’s nothing. The ACLU has no problem suing. [Attorney General] Letitia James in New York, of course, she’s sue-happy. … The other side has no problem suing.”
Gaines further expressed optimism that the the “tides” are turning in the favor of conservatives. “The tides are going to turn because ultimately this movement is driven by dollar signs. It is driven by money. People act out of a fear of not getting sued and by taking the actions that we have now. We are showing them that the other side is just as willing and just as capable to sue as they believe the trans rights activists would be to sue,” she said.
