Last week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sat in front of a large audience in Portland, Maine, to support Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee in the Senate race. During the event, an audience member told AOC that trans people in the country feel that they have been abandoned by the Democratic Party. With the WNBA having officially turned into a battleground to solve the trans issue in sports, Ocasio-Cortez’s response drew a sharp response from Outkick’s sports commentator Jon Root.

“I don’t support the rights of trans people just to protect my own rights, but I support the rights of trans women because I’m a girl’s girl,” AOC said. “And I think that all of our bodily autonomy is tied together.”

Addressing the crowd, Ocasio-Cortez alleged that the current administration was targeting trans people in the country and taking away their “civil rights” of going to college and non-discrimination under Title IX. Root slammed ‌New York’s 14th district’s representative, calling her argument dumb.

“This is by far one of the dumbest, most brain-dead, most nonsensical, stupid things I have ever heard from a politician,” the sports commentator said in a video on X. “Men already have rights, and they have no right to compete in women’s sports or invade women’s spaces.”

Congresswoman pressed that trans people constituted a very small fraction, and attacking trans women also constituted an attack on women. 

“When they attack trans girls in sports, they’re also attacking all women’s ability to stand up against their abusers…and their assaulters on campuses across America,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “And that’s why I think it’s very important for all of us to understand and to feel and to know that our fight is united.”

Jon Root brings up high school girls who got support from Sophie Cunningham for boycotting competition

AOC is not the first politician to support trans athlete participation in sports. Ed Markey supported their participation in women’s sports. But Root brought up the recent incident during a high school cross-country event.

“I would love to see AOC have the audacity to say this nonsense to the girls at Camas High School who walked out of their cross-country meet because they were competing against males,” he said. 

Earlier this month, the incident at the mentioned high school went viral when several girls decided to boycott the cross-country competition after seeing a trans athlete participate with them.

According to KUOW, the trans student had competed against boys early in the season before switching to participate in girls’ competition. WNBA star Sophie Cunningham came in support of the protesting students with a three-word message.

“Good work girls,” she commented in an Instagram post by XX-XY Athletics.

The ongoing trans athlete participation is not limited to high schools and colleges. In the last few months, the debate has found its most fertile battleground in the WNBA, prompting what has been the most heated and perhaps most uncomfortable discussion in the league. 

Enes Kanter paints an “uncomfortable” scene as he continues to pressure the WNBA to change rules

Since August, Enes Kanter Freedom has declared for the WNBA Draft in 2027, claimed that he identifies as a woman and got ejected from a WNBA game. Twice, according to him. According to Kanter, he has been making the league uncomfortable because he wanted to protect women in women’s sports.  

Kanter has been pressing the league to define the term “women” in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. According to the former NBA player, he would be eligible to play in the WNBA if declaring oneself as a woman was enough for participation. According to Kanter, if the eligibility was open without properly defining a woman, it would invite an ugly scenario. 

“People are focusing on me playing in the league. If that ever happens, I am allowed to take a shower in the same room with them,” he said on The Sage Steele Show. “I am allowed to use the same bathroom as them, and I am allowed to change in the same locker room with them. So think about how uncomfortable it is: a room with naked women taking showers, and I’m walking in.

“They’re not going to create another man’s locker room because, according to their rules, I’m a woman now. So, I’m going to be able to take a shower in the same room with them.”

The CBA says that “only players who are women are eligible to play” in the WNBA. However, there is no specific definition or criteria put in place for determining if an individual is a woman.

Alongside Kanter, another former NBA player, Royce White, also declared for the draft in August. In response to a question by Rep. Marlin A. Stutzman about Kanter and White’s eligibility, the league said that both players were “men.” Kanter later slammed the league and said that WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert declared him a man without defining what a woman was. 

The trans athlete participation debate has taken a gigantic leap in the last few months. With new faces jumping into the debate every day, it’s hard to see an end.