Fact Check: AOC Did NOT Remove Pronouns From X Bio After 2024 Election — It Was Months Earlier
Did Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, commonly known as AOC, delete her pronouns from her account on X shortly after the 2024 election? No, that’s not true: It happened months earlier. According to archived copies of the lawmaker’s account, pronouns were most likely removed between November 2023 and May 2024.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on November 14, 2024. It said:
2 years ago, AOC posted an apology for forgetting to put pronouns in her bio.
She just removed them on X.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Nov 15 18:35:19 2024 UTC)
The post implied that Ocasio-Cortez, who secured another term (archived here and here) and advocated for transgender rights (archived here), among other issues, removed her pronouns from her X bio after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential (archived here).
Among those who promoted this narrative were Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (archived here) and Riley Gaines (archived here), a former swimmer known for advocating against transgender participation in women’s sports.
The claim is not backed by archived versions of Ocasio-Cortez’s X account.
Pronouns were absent not only on November 15, 2024, November 14, 2024, and November 7, 2024 but also on November 6, 2024; October 25, 2024; October 18, 2024; October 15, 2024; July 30, 2024; June 15, 2024, and May 18, 2024.
The most recent archived version of the lawmaker’s account with the pronouns that Lead Stories found goes back to November 2, 2023. That predates Election Day 2024 by a year.
Lead Stories contacted Ocasio-Cortez for additional comments. If we receive a response, this story will be updated as appropriate.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can be found here; those concerning claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential election can be found here.
