House Democrats overwhelmingly showed solidarity with the trans community this week, with only two (both from Trump-voting districts) voting in favor of an anti-trans sports bill passed by the GOP.

The unified Democratic opposition to the bill is significant from a party that has appeared to be fracturing over trans rights since Donald Trump’s election victory. And according to one member of Congress, it is this type of strength that will ultimately allow the Democrats to protect vulnerable communities.

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“When we tell the truth about what Republicans are doing, and when we’re unafraid to do that, it generates momentum,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told political reporter Dave Weigel. “When we lean into that momentum that we generate, and when Democrats aren’t afraid to throw a damn punch, then we can see that we can yield results.”

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She added that the party can’t “cower in the face of tough issues ” because “people are looking for strength.”

“The reason why I think some folks in the Democratic Party have felt like trans issues are hot water, or immigration issues are hot water, is because they haven’t felt confident or the ability to confidently throw a punch on solid ground that is persuasive and uniting people”

Calling out GOP malice “aggressively” is what brings people together, she emphasized.

“When we just show people how a bill like this doesn’t just hurt trans girls, which is a problem, it hurts all girls; and when we show that a bunch of men who are letting women die in parking lots should not be trusted, it’s like letting foxes into the henhouse.”

“I think people smell blood in the water,” she concluded. “They can understand weakness. And where they see weakness, that’s when everything kind of falls apart. So we have to be strong about these things. And I think projecting strength attracts support.”

The House passed the anti-trans sports bill on Tuesday. Entitled the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, it seeks to ban transgender students from playing sports at any federally funded schools and education programs. It passed largely along party lines in a 218-206 vote, with two Democrats supporting it along with all Republicans. The Democrats were Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar of Texas. Three Republicans and six Democrats didn’t vote, while one Democrat voted “present,”

The bill would amend Title IX — the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in government-funded schools and education programs — to prohibit schools from allowing trans female athletes to participate in athletic programs or activities “designated for women or girls.” 

While the bill defines sex as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth,” the Congressional Equality Caucus noted that the bill “could force any student to answer invasive personal questions about their bodies & face humiliating physical inspections to ‘prove’ that they’re a girl.” The caucus referred to the bill as the “Child Predator Empowerment Act.” 

When introducing the bill, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) wrote in a statement that repeatedly misgendered trans women, “The radical left is not in step with the American people on the issue of protecting women’s sports. Americans have loudly spoken that they do not want men stealing sports records from women, entering their daughters’ locker rooms, replacing female athletes on teams, and taking their daughters’ scholarship opportunities.”

In a statement opposing the bill, out lesbian Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) said, “This is interrogation of young girls about their bodies; this asking people to show them what’s underneath their underwear. That is what we’re talking about.” 

Ocasio-Cortez wrote, “There is no enforcement mechanism in this bill. And when there is no enforcement mechanism, you open the door for every enforcement mechanism.” 

Over 400 LGBTQ+ and civil rights groups asked congressional legislators to oppose the bill. It’s unclear when its companion bill in the Republican-controlled Senate will receive a vote and doubtful that the bill will receive enough Democratic support to pass the upper chamber’s 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster.

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