AOC's Queer Brother Gabriel Fights Back After Being Trolled on the Web

We all know AOC, but who is GOC?

His name is Gabriel Ocasio-Cortez and he is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's queer younger brother.

What has brought him to the media's attention was this past week a false news story circulated that said he was arrested on Lake Superior after US Coast Guards caught him in possession of $1.2 million worth of fentanyl.

"'AOC's brother has just been charged with trafficking fentanyl,' the creator confidently stated in the since-deleted video, all while pointing at the 'news source' behind her," reported the Daily Mail.

"The fake news quickly spread across a variety of social media platforms - including Facebook, Instagram Threads and Twitter - with the TikTok video alone garnering more than 50,000 likes before its removal."

On April 22, Gabriel responded via TikTok, stating plainly: "I'm the brother... my name's not Matthew," and clarified that he has no connection to the story, reported the Latin Times.

"I have no idea why they're posting this. I work with the homeless. I have nothing to do with this story, which isn't real. Please find something better to do with your time," Gabriel said.

"In a second video, he warned that viral lies–even if believed by only a fraction of viewers–can have real-world consequences, especially in an era of rising political extremism and threats," the Latin Times continued.

"That's all it takes to start to get somebody that's a little bit radicalized, somebody that's willing to pick up their guns and go do something," he continued. "And it wouldn't be the first time somebody's tried. That's the society that we're in, so things like this are just more serious than ever, and you can't slander people."

But who is Gabriel? The website Style did a deep-dive into his life. Here is what they learned:

He is 32-years old, lives in New York City, and is a homeless activist and artist. When was three years old his parents moved Gabriel and his 5-year old sister Alexandria from the Bronx to the more affluent New York City of Yorktown Heights. While his sister pursued politics, he studied art psychotherapy at Long Island University, graduating in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science degree. While he previously worked as a property broker, Gabriel is presently self-employed as a consultant specializing in public outreach efforts and community rehousing, and has worked as an art therapist with veterans.

A 2020 Q&A in Interview Magazine described him as "an ascending artist and musician, an advocate for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing, a voice for ending homelessness, a queer liberation activist, and a native New Yorker with Puerto Rican heritage. He's been told he looks like a young Marc Anthony–by the one and only Cardi B, no less. He's a free-spirited, forthright and strong-willed Sagittarius who cares deeply about ensuring those who share his lived experience have the support and community they so richly deserve. At times, he's had to build himself up from ground zero, having lost half his hearing and his father as a teenager, leaving him to help fend for his family. Nevertheless, Gabriel's story is one of the transmutation of personal experience into a vehicle for helping others. For example, when he first began to lose his hearing as a teenager, Gabriel taught himself guitar and piano, which he still uses to compose his own original music. Years later, his passion has evolved into a Deaf-centered arts collective, Deaf Collective, which he is turning into a nonprofit."

His teenage years were stressful to say the least. At 15 his father, his family's chief source of support, died after a two-year illness. Gabriel also lost half his hearing, and was dealing with realizing he was gay. "I was also coming to terms with my sexuality and wanting to come out, but always having the fear, a very valid fear, that I would be rejected from my house. [Because of my sister], many people assume that there were many progressive values in the way we were raised, but the reality is that we were righteous when it came to our beliefs and morality about class."

To keep his family from becoming homeless, he did what he could to maintain their standard of living, but also felt he couldn't be true to himself for fears of being turned out because he was gay. "So it's like, what do I do? Do I become homeless with my family or without my family? These were the things going on in my head, and that was my reality for a long time. I did not feel comfortable coming out to my family until I was 150 percent financially stable because I felt that it was just simply going to rock the boat to launch."

He built a successful real estate business and was responsible for his sister becoming a Congressional candidate. "I was really proud of the business that I had built, and when I nominated my sister for a Congressional bid to run, I remember thinking that I always knew she could do it. There was never a question about it. For me, it has always been a matter of fact. I am not surprised by who she is. This is the person I have always known, and the reality is that before I hit send on that letter, I remember thinking to myself: this could fuck shit up.

And not in a positive way. With his sister's political success came fears for his family's safety and his own, as well as for the business he had built. And he learned by pulling back, he gained his own freedom. "I got a call from the FBI saying that I could not open my mail because there were mailing bombs. We do not have any address out. It is definitely tricky. I had to stop working because I could not post open houses as a real estate broker, because people would come and be weird. People would wait outside, and it got to a point where it was genuinely overwhelming. I would say it definitely splintered me. I actively worked as much as I could for a few months just to try to save as much as I could, and I basically had to quit because it was what I had projected as my worst-case scenario. But was it worth it? Yes. I had already been through so much, I thought it couldn't be as bad as it was when we were about to get foreclosed on. I didn't know it would be a thousand times worse, but I am so grateful for it because I needed to lose my mind. I needed to allow myself to fail, and I did. I quit. I burned out. I moved. I changed everything."

And he is completely comfortable with his sexuality, so much so that in 2021 he joined a group of queer nightlife promoters to host a rave in the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood that was covered by New York Magazine's The Cut, which called him "AOC's little brother. Her gay brother. Her hot, gay, rave-hosting little brother. And, according to the report, he got mucho attention from the rave's attendees for wearing a black-mesh wrestling singlet. "In person, he possesses the same charm as his sister, though he's a bit goofier and occasionally braggadocious, if not downright cocky, as little brothers tend to be," The Cut correspondent wrote. "'Sometimes you have to throw yourself to the wolves.'" he joked when we arrived at the party."

At the bar the correspondent learns notices small lit-up placards at the bar are the drink menu and prices, which is uncommon at raves, and learns they are the Gabriel's doing. "In exchange for hosting the party, he asked the organizers to take steps to make it more accessible to the hearing impaired. He also asked for a light on the dance floor that pulses to the beat of the music. Still, not everything meets his expectations. As for future improvements, he tells me the lights could be better, the menus could be larger, and the stairs will always be an obstacle that could prevent someone from having a good time. 'I guess that's just part of disability culture: You don't stop asking.'"

Leaving the party around 4AM, the correspondent asked Gabriel about what he thought of the rave. "It was cute. I left with the jacket I came with. I wasn't super-violently sexually assaulted. I'm alive." And they laugh before he adds: "I don't undervalue the queer experience."

At present, Gabriel, though, doesn't share many details of his personal life with his 13,000 or so Instagram followers. It is not known if he is currently in a relationship of dating anyone. His posts largely relate to his social advocacy work and personal development, but he does share pics of himself.