Freshman House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) stopped by the Twitch stream of a Donkey Kong 64 benefit marathon run by YouTube star Hbomberguy, a.k.a. Harry Brewis over the weekend.
In launching the marathon, Brewis hoped to raise money for the UK transgender charity Mermaids, a charity that assists transgender children and young people. As of this posting, the marathon’s stream was reportiing that $341,670.00 had been raised.
Brewis made the announcement of the benefit marathon in a YouTube video last week:
Said Brewis: “I chose to support [Mermaids] because as a person living in Britain, I find the media discussion surrounding this issue in my country, especially in its tabloids, to be woefully misinformed. I’d like to do my bit to help support the people who do the hard work of contributing to people’s thinking on an important issue.”
Brewis said he also chose to support Mermaids because of the anti-trans writing of Graham Linehan, a British sitcom writer who recently told the public to oppose Mermaids after news broke that the charity would be receiving a substantial donation from the Big Lottery Fund, a grant-making organization which gets its funds from tickets sold in the National Lottery.
Linehan had written that Mermaids pushes an “extreme ideological agenda” and took an “experimental” and “non-evidence-based” approach to trans and gender nonconforming children.
Ocasio-Cortez, who has been lauded for her savvy on Twitter and other social media platforms, stopped by the stream to offer her support at the 52-hour mark. She had tweeted about the benefit earlier in the day on Sunday.
Turns out Ocasio-Cortez was familiar with the classic Nintendo system, commenting on the stream: “I never owned a N64 but I used to go to my cousin’s house all the time and she had Super Mario 64, Pokemon Snap, and probably a handful of other things.”
Ocasio-Cortez also talked about trans discrimination: “It makes these issues much more acute in their crises than they usually are on average for other people. So it’s important that we do talk about these issues in the economic frame, but not let go of the fact that that discrimination is a core reason for the economic hardship.”
Users took notice:
Ocasio-Cortez also on Sunday blasted screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who said “the new crop of young people who were just elected to Congress now need to stop acting like young people.”
Tweeted Ocasio-Cortez: ‘News Flash: Medicare for All & equal rights aren’t trends. When people complain about low turnout in some demos, it’s not because communities are apathetic, it’s bc they don’t see you fighting for them. If we don’t show up for people, why should you feel entitled to their vote?’
