Sarah McBride gives moving farewell speech to Delaware Senate as she heads to D.C.

Sarah McBride at the US Capitol Building

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McBride thanked her fellow Delaware representatives for helping her "realize the awesome responsibility and the awesome opportunity that we have to leave this state better and kinder than we found it."

As the first out transgender member of Congress, Sarah McBride has a challenging road ahead — but she's taking to D.C. all the "hope" she's found in Delaware.

The former state senator, who will soon be a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, gave a moving farewell speech to her colleagues on Monday in which she thanked them for helping her "realize the awesome responsibility and the awesome opportunity that we have to leave this state better and kinder than we found it."

"This body is the engine of public policy for Delaware. It's looked out for the unseen and the unheard, it has fought for working families, it's protected children, and it's supported our retirees," McBride said. "With compassion and courage, we have proven time and time again that small states can do big things."

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McBride became the first out trans state senator in the nation when she was elected to Delaware’s Senate in 2020. She spearheaded Delaware’s legislation to ban the “gay and trans panic” defense as a state senator, which prohibits defendants from justifying violent actions based on the discovery of a victim’s LGBTQ+ identity.

McBride has been known in the state for her ability to garner bipartisan support for legislation, helping to pass paid family and medical leave, gun safety measures, and protections for reproductive rights.

Before even taking office in the U.S. Congress, McBride has already faced discrimination from her Republican colleagues, who have banned transgender people from using the facilities that align with their gender identities in an effort admitted to specifically target her.

Still, McBride did not seem discouraged in her speech, saying that "as I head out and head to Washington, D.C., I take with me all the lessons that I have learned here."

"I take with me the hope that I have found here that despite the rancor and the toxicity that we too often see in our politics, that we do genuinely have more in common than what divides us; that we can and that we must have conversations across disagreement; that we can have a politics of grace and not grandstanding, a politics of progress not pettiness," she said.