Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed Chaya Raichik, the operator of the anti-LGBT+ Twitter account Libs of TikTok, when the rightwing activist cornered the New York progressive representative in the US Capitol.
The fiery exchange took place on Thursday after Ms Raichik had spent over a week trying to confront the congresswoman, The Advocate notes.
Ms Raichik appeared to trick Ms Ocasio-Cortez into taking a photo together, but when the congresswoman became aware of who she was speaking to, her tone markedly changed.
The rightwing provocateur is selling a book and online subscriptions to her platform, arguing that Ms Ocasio-Cortez lied during a congressional hearing last month when she said that her online activities have spurred on harassment as well as a bomb threat against Boston Children’s Hospital.
The account Libs of TikTok tweeted last year about the hospital’s gender-affirming care for trans individuals. The hospital was later threatened.
The rightwing think tank the Heritage Foundation helped Ms Raichik file an ethics complaint against the congresswoman. Ms Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t in her office earlier on Thursday when the paperwork was handed over, Ms Raichik claimed in the footage she shared on social media.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez didn’t recognize Ms Raichik initially, and posed for a photo with her before the conservative went on to say that she “just delivered an ethics complaint to your office because you lied about me in a committee hearing”.
“Yeah, no, I actually didn’t,” the congresswoman responded.
“I never inspired a bomb threat,” Ms Raichik said before Ms Ocasio-Cortez interrupted her, telling Ms Raichik that she’s “actually super transphobic, and I never want to share a space with you”.
Ms Raichik attacks LGBT+ people as well as their allies on social media, leading to her two million followers attacking those who created the videos shared on the Libs of TikTok account.
Civil rights lawyer Alejandra Caraballo shared the footage of Ms Ocasio-Cortez leaving the interaction, writing, “@AOC told Chaya Raichik aka libs of tiktok that she’s transphobic straight to her face when she ran into her”.
“You bet I did. NYC doesn’t play with bigots and transphobes and neither do I. Have a great day!” Ms Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.
Ms Raichik responded on Twitter, writing, “According to AOC, not wanting kids to get their body parts chopped off, attend adult sexual themed entertainment, or read porn in school is ‘transphobic’”.
In August of last year, PolitiFact fact-checked Ms Raichik’s tweet that “Boston Children’s Hospital is now offering ‘gender-affirming hysterectomies’ for young girls” as false.
“This is monstrous,” Trump aide and speechwriter Stephen Miller wrote at the time. “How does anyone involved in this still have a medical license?”
Libs of TikTok tweeted a video of a doctor at the hospital speaking about gender-affirming hysterectomies, which is the removal of the uterus, cervix, and fallopian tubes.
But the doctor never says that the measure is available to children, the claim instead appears to be based on the word “children’s” in the name of the hospital.
The Center for Gender Surgery is located within the pediatric hospital, but medical treatment is only available for “eligible adolescents and young adults”.
“The Center for Gender Surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital offers gender affirmation surgery services to eligible adolescents and young adults who are ready to take this step in their journey,” its website states.
The hospital follows guidelines put forward by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which doesn’t advise that children receive surgery.
“Surgery is never the first step in a gender transition,” the website adds. “It is something that happens after you have already explored social and medical transition options.”
Patients must be over 18 years old to have the surgery and a letter from a doctor saying that they have “persistent, well-documented, gender dysphoria,” the site states.
A separate letter is also required from a mental health professional stating that the patient is ready for surgery and that they entirely understand the “procedure and recovery needs, fertility implications of surgery, and risks of surgery”.
