DOVER, Del. (AP) – Sarah McBride made history in Delaware as the United States’ first openly transgender senator. Now she’s making history again, recently elected as the first openly transgender congresswoman.
Her political rise came amid a battle over transgender rights, while legislation in Republican-controlled states across the country aims to curb her advance. During an election that featured a barrage of campaign ads and politicians demeaning transgender people, McBride still handily won her blue state’s only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
But even before she was sworn in, her reception by Republicans in Congress was turbulent. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina took aim at her by proposing to ban transgender people from using restrooms at the U.S. Capitol that match their gender identity — a ban that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La ., has issued.
McBride tried to defuse the situation by saying she would follow the rules. “I’m not here to argue about toilets,” the 34-year-old wrote in a statement.
Here are other insights from AP’s coverage of McBride:
Early promise and a meteoric rise
Growing up in Wilmington, Delaware, McBride was the kind of kid who practiced Democratic political speeches on a makeshift podium in her bedroom. By high school, she had worked on several campaigns, including that of Beau Biden, the president’s slow son and former Delaware attorney general.
Although she seemed destined to work in politics, McBride once felt that revealing her gender identity would derail those ambitions. She was 21 and president of American University’s student government when she came out as transgender, first to her friends and family and later in a public post that went viral.
McBride says: “Coming out was without question the hardest thing I had ever done up to that point. And yet, compared to so many people’s experiences, it was relatively easy.”
A supportive family and a pastor
Her parents were her biggest supporters, but they worried about her. One of her first calls after McBride came out was to her pastor, the Rev. Gregory Knox Jones of Westminster Presbyterian, a progressive church where Sarah was a youth elder and Jill Biden is a member.
“We talked about how this was your child. “You love your child,” Jones recalls. “You can’t imagine losing a son. You had a daughter.”
David McBride, Sarah’s father, said this kind of support made all the difference to their family. “Our life and Sarah’s life were shaped by the response we and she received first from our friends, our church, our community.”
A rapid series of premieres
McBride broke ground with a quick series of firsts. During her studies, she became the first openly transgender woman to complete an internship at the White House. At a reception there, she met and later fell in love with youthful lawyer Andrew Cray, a trans man and LGBTQ+ health policy advocate.
An activist at age 22, McBride was instrumental in passing a transgender nondiscrimination law in Delaware. She worked as a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, a leading LGBTQ rights group. In 2016, she became the first openly transgender person to speak at the Democratic National Convention.
A demanding worker in the legislature – fueled by coffee
As a state legislator, McBride was known for her demanding work. On busy days she rarely stops eating, but instead subsists on a regular diet of coffee, prosperous in cream and sweeteners.
Nowhere is her boundless energy more evident than when she discusses the details of policymaking. She likes kitchen table topics: health care, paid family leave, child care and affordable housing. In the state Senate, she led the Health Committee and helped augment access to Medicaid and dental care for underserved communities. Most of their bills received bipartisan support.
Her outstanding achievement was helping to pass paid family and medical leave in Delaware. For McBride, it was personal.
Her partner Cray was 27 when he was diagnosed with oral cancer. Within a year the prognosis was terminal. They moved forward with their wedding plans and asked Rev. Gene Robinson, a friend and the first openly gay bishop, to officiate.
They married in August 2014 on the roof of their home. Cray died in hospital four days later.
Striving for a politics of grace
In her 2018 memoir, McBride wrote a chapter titled “Amazing Grace” about “beautiful acts of kindness” she witnessed in the final weeks of Cray’s life.
“When people experience loss, it can be either faith-destroying or faith-strengthening. And for me it was an affirmation of faith,” she said.
Over the next decade, she often asks herself, “What would Andy do?” and tries to follow his example of compassion and “principled mercy” toward anti-LGBTQ politicians. “His kindness, his decency have given me a North Star.”
Some activists criticized McBride for not more forcefully opposing the Capitol bathroom ban. She agrees that it is crucial for trans people to have access to public facilities, but says she will respond with grace.
“Ultimately, our ability to have a pluralistic, diverse democracy requires a certain foundation of kindness and grace,” McBride said. “And I believe in it so strongly that I will try to conjure it, even when it’s difficult.”
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Associated Press religion coverage is supported by the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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The Associated Press’ women workforce and state government reporting receive financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for this content.
