Will Republicans ever stop being weird around Representative Sarah McBride? Ever since the Delaware Democrat became the first transgender person ever elected to Congress, several of her colleagues across the aisle have consistently attacked and misgendered her. First, Representative Nancy Mace and House Speaker Mike Johnson moved to ban McBride from using the women’s restroom across the Capitol before she was even sworn in. (Mace has also continuously misgendered her colleague on X and in TV interviews.) Then last month, Representative Mary Miller called her “the gentleman from Delaware, Mr. McBride” right before the Delaware congresswoman gave her first House floor speech.
On Tuesday, it happened again, when Texas representative Keith Self introduced her as “Mr. McBride” during a hearing for the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe. While McBride has previously let her colleagues’ comments about her gender identity slide, this time she dryly replied to Self, “Thank you, Madam Chair,” before moving on with her prepared remarks.
But the hearing devolved from there when Massachusetts representative William Keating, the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, interrupted McBride to ask Self to repeat what he’d said. The Texas Republican implied that misgendering McBride was “the standard on the floor of the House” and repeated his incorrect introduction. Keating was not happy about it and spoke up in McBride’s defense.
“Mr. Chairman, you are out of order,” he replied. “Mr. Chairman, have you no decency? I mean, I’ve come to know you a little bit. But this is not decent.”
Self pushed to continue the hearing, but Keating refused to move on. “You will not continue it with me unless you introduce a duly elected representative the right way,” he said. Rather than refer to McBride correctly, Self called for the session to be adjourned. That’s your tax dollars at work!
Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration have made erasing transgender people from public life a central part of their agenda, so it’s no surprise that they view disrespecting McBride as an easy way to score points with their base. For her part, the Delaware Democrat has largely refused to engage with their bigotry. She has said that responding to every bad-faith comment or mockery is unproductive, and it also plays into Republicans’ hands — which is why she’d rather focus on her job.
“We have to reclaim the narrative and the humanity in the public’s mind of trans people,” she told The 19th last month. “The most good that I think I can do is to be a full human being, to not be siloed and reduced to only one part of who I am, as proud as I am of that part.”
In keeping with that strategy, McBride put out a statement that didn’t address the misgendering incident directly on Tuesday. “No matter how I’m treated by some colleagues, nothing diminishes my awe and gratitude at getting to represent Delaware in Congress,” she posted on X. “It is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime. I simply want to serve and to try to make this world a better place.”