trans rights

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Casually Joins Gaming Livestream For a Good Cause

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Photo: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images

Well, time to add Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s name to the growing list of Representatives Who Game. Just hours after responding to director Aaron Sorkin’s ridiculous assertion that Democratic freshmen should “stop acting like young people,” the congresswoman helped a British YouTuber and gamer raise over $340,000 for transgender youth by making a casual appearance on his charity Twitch stream, where she advocated for “equal rights for all.”

On Friday, gamer Harry Brewis, also known as Hbomberguy, told his YouTube followers of his intent to start and finish Donkey Kong 64 without interruption. After parenting website Mumsnet launched a defunding campaign against Mermaids, a charity that supports transgender kids, Brewis wanted to raise money for the organization through a video-game livestream — a goal that caught the attention of Ocasio-Cortez, who tweeted in support of Brewis and then joined his stream as he was entering his 50th hour of gaming.

To a live audience of approximately 17,000 viewers, Ocasio-Cortez called for “equal rights for all, no asterisks, no fine print,” and said, “Trans rights are civil rights are human rights.” She then launched into the issues of housing and health care for trans people, and how discrimination both aggravates and is a source of economic insecurity.

“When you have the added layer of discrimination, it makes these issues much more acute in their crises than they usually are on average for other people,” she said. “It’s important that we do talk about these issues in an economic frame, but not let go of the fact that discrimination is a core reason for the economic hardship.”

Ocasio-Cortez was just one of the celebrated guests who dropped in on the livestream. Throughout Sunday, Chelsea Manning was tweeting in support of Brewis, and at one point joined the stream. And though she did not call in herself, Cher also retweeted a message in support of Brewis.

Shocking: “Acting like young people” isn’t bad!

AOC Casually Joins Gaming Livestream for a Good Cause