Democratic Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride, the first out transgender member of Congress, rebuked Republicans who have fixated on her gender identity instead of substantive policy issues affecting Americans.
“I appear to live rent-free in the minds of some of my Republican colleagues,” McBride said during the Democrats’ annual retreat in Leesburg, Va., on Wednesday.
Her remarks came just two days after Texas Republican Rep. Keith Self, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s subpanel on Europe, repeatedly misgendered her during a hearing, referring to her as “Mister McBride.” The exchange prompted an immediate rebuke from Rep. Bill Keating, the ranking Democrat from Massachusetts on the subcommittee, who demanded a correction. Instead of apologizing, Self abruptly adjourned the hearing.
McBride, undeterred, denounced the GOP’s culture war obsession. “I wish that they would spend even a fraction of the time that they spend thinking about me, thinking about how to lower the costs for American families,” she said. “I wish they would spend a fraction of the time that they spend thinking about me, figuring out how to make government actually work better, rather than making it work worse in order to prove that government can’t work.”
The incident was only the latest in a string of Republican attacks against McBride since she took office in January. Just weeks earlier, House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican, instituted a bathroom ban preventing transgender people from using restrooms that align with their gender identity on Capitol Hill. The discriminatory rule sparked national outrage, with critics condemning it as an attempt to marginalize transgender Americans further.
That ban soon led to another GOP embarrassment when Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and South Carolina’s Nancy Mace mistakenly confronted a cisgender woman in the Capitol restroom, believing her to be McBride. The incident highlighted the dangerous implications of Johnson’s policy and drew further criticism from LGBTQ+ advocates.
“The Republican Party is obsessed with culture war issues,” McBride said. “It is weird, and it is bizarre. And the American people deserve serious legislators, serious elected officials who are focused on bringing people together to deliver real results for the American people. Not to play games, and not to engage in schoolyard taunts.”
She concluded her remarks with a direct rebuke of GOP complaints about decorum. “We will not take a lecture on decorum from a party that incited an insurrection,” McBride said.
Watch Rep. Sarah McBride's remarks below.
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