TV: Did the congressman sharing your photo lead to harassment?
OJ: I’ve gotten body-shaming comments. I got a really nasty email calling me homopobic and racial slurs and the subject line of the email was “MATT”. So I received hateful comments about my body, being like nobody would ever want to sleep with you, you would never need an abortion but they don’t really bother me. I know that the people out there who hate me are trying their hardest to get me to be insecure about myself and it’s not working.
TV: How did you get the confidence to shut down elected officials publicly?
OJ: : I don’t think I’ve ever said this in an interview but I grew up obsessed with professional wrestling and WWE and I truly believe that my comeback ability and my confidence in times of arguments or attacks 100% comes from years of watching WWE and scripted conflict. In wrestling it’s called “mic work” where pro wrestlers will get on the mic and will be the villain or they’ll be the face which is the good guy. I had years of watching storylines take on authority figures or “bad guys” made me develop a quick wit to respond in this situation. I mean, I was obsessed. I had posters of John Cena. My nana got me into it. She developed Alzheimer’s when she was young but she always remembered how much she loved watching WWE. When I was four or five visiting her house, wrestling was always on the TV. The love for it got instilled in me a young age. I was really into it as a kid.
TV: How did you make the jump from “Ok, I just got publicly body shamed by a congressman” to “I’m going to use this to make positive change”?
OJ: I had an opportunity to have more attention. Matt had put a spotlight on me; he had given me a chance to rebut publicly and I think what he was expecting was for me to fall into an outrage cycle and he wanted me to be like, “This is horrendous, you’re evil, you should be canceled.” He wants people to label him as a monster and free-speech absolutist and I don’t think he expected for me to respond in the way that I did — to fundraise for abortions. And he also didn’t expect me to bring up his criminal investigation. What a weirdo to talk about another teenager. (Editor’s note: Gaetz is currently under investigation for whether he had sex with a minor and violated sexual trafficking laws. The congressman has denied the allegations, and has not been charged with any crime.)
TV: Where are the funds going?
OJ: Gen-Z for change started this ActBlue fund right after Roe fell and so it’s an ActBlue link and the donations are split among 50 funds. If you go to the link, you can see what the funds are. Gen-Z for Change doesn’t get any of that money.