DOVER, Del. — It was her last day as a Delaware state senator, and Sarah McBride sat in her small office at the state Capitol, preparing to say farewell.
She made history here as the country’s first openly transgender state senator. Now she’s making history again, having recently been elected as the first openly transgender member of Congress.
Her political ascension comes as transgender rights are being considered, with Republican-run states across the country enacting legislation aimed at curbing the expansion of transgender rights. Ta. During an election filled with campaign ads and politicians disparaging transgender people, McBride still easily won the only U.S. House seat in a blue state.
But even before she was sworn in Friday, her reception from congressional Republicans was tumultuous. South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace targeted transgender people who identify with their gender identity by proposing to ban them from the Capitol restrooms. The ban was enacted by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana).
McBride tried to defuse the situation by saying he would follow the rules. “I’m not here to fight over toilets,” the 34-year-old said in a statement.
Some activists want her to fight harder, but to those who know her, the move was typical of Sarah. He is a pragmatist with a bipartisan reputation who values diplomacy over punishment.
“I’m so happy and in awe to have this opportunity, and I wouldn’t let anyone take that away from me,” McBride told The Associated Press. “I’m just there to do my job like anyone else.”
The Delaware Senate, her political home for the past four years, is small, much like the state itself, with just 21 members and less than 100 miles (155 kilometers) from north to south. That closeness creates a kind of camaraderie that’s often lacking in Washington these days, though it’s not constant.
“We’re a family,” said state Sen. Brian Pettyjohn, a Republican colleague who walked up to Mr. McBride and hugged him. “We will disagree on many points, but we will not have any bitter opinions.”
The Delaware General Assembly had to approve nominees at the last minute and wrap up its day-to-day business during a special session on Dec. 16.
In between votes, McBride sat on a burgundy couch in her office, typing away on her laptop. The employee looked at the documents on the desk. The next day, they removed the art from the walls and packed up their precious memorabilia. Photo from McBride’s wedding with her late husband. A letter from former President Barack Obama. Photo with Delaware’s most famous politician, President Joe Biden.
Down the hall in the state Senate chamber, McBride’s colleagues in the General Assembly sent her off like a popular classmate at a graduation ceremony. She began the day with a prayer about “new beginnings and bittersweet endings.”
She concluded with a speech thanking her fellow state legislators.
“Despite the hatred and toxicity that is too often seen in our politics, here we find that we truly have more in common than what divides us,” McBride said. I’m bringing back hope.”
She continued, “We can have a politics of grace rather than grandeur, a politics of progress rather than triviality.”
Early promise and meteoric rise
Growing up in Wilmington, McBride was the type of kid who practiced Democratic political speeches on a makeshift podium in his bedroom.
By high school, she was working on multiple campaigns, including that of the president’s late son and former Delaware attorney general Beau Biden.
“She combines a passion for public service with a strong intellect and exceptional political acumen and messaging skills,” said Jack Markell, McBride’s mentor and former Delaware governor and U.S. ambassador to Italy. said.
McBride seemed destined for a career in politics, but at times she felt revealing her gender identity would derail her ambitions.
She was 21 years old and serving as student government president at American University when she came out as transgender, first to friends and family, then in a public post that went viral.
McBride said, sitting in her Wilmington apartment. Still, it was still relatively easy compared to the experiences of so many people. ”
Her parents were her biggest supporters, but they worried about her. After McBride came out, the first person they called was the Rev. Gregory Knox Jones, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian, a progressive church where Sarah is a youth elder and Jill Biden is a member.
“We talked about the fact that this is your child. You love your child,” Jones recalled. “I can’t imagine losing my son. You now have a daughter.”
Sarah’s father, David McBride, said support like this had made a huge difference to his family. “Our life and Sarah’s life were shaped by the initial response she and I received from our friends, our church, and our community.”
McBride quickly experiences one first time after another, paving the way. While in college, she became the first openly transgender woman to intern at the White House. At a reception there, she met and subsequently fell in love with Andrew Clay, a young lawyer who is a trans man and LGBTQ health policy advocate.
McBride was a 22-year-old activist who helped pass a transgender anti-discrimination law in Delaware. She worked as a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, a major LGBTQ rights organization. In 2016, she became the first openly transgender speaker at the Democratic National Convention.
Being a first, a first in history, is both a privilege and a burden. McBride was quick to point out that headlines about her gender identity are more than just headlines.
“The reality is, I didn’t run to be number one. I didn’t run to make history in the election,” she said.
Her focus is on being the best legislator for all of Delaware and the nation.
That’s “the only way I can guarantee I’m not the first but not the last.”
show ponies and working horses
Democratic state Sen. Elizabeth Lockman said that before working with Mr. McBride, she thought, “She’s probably very good at expressing herself in public and speaking, in a little bit of a freak show,” and was already I thought I was destined to appear on a big stage.
“Okay, she’s a show pony, but can she be used as a carriage?” Rockman remembered thinking. “What I would say to her is that she has proven to us that she is both. She is probably one of the hardest working people.”
Even on busy days, McBride rarely stops for a meal, instead subsisting on a steady diet of coffee with lots of cream and sweeteners.
And nowhere is her boundless energy more evident than when she talks about the minutiae of policy decisions. She loves food table issues like health care, paid family leave, child care, and affordable housing. In the state Senate, he chaired the Health Committee and helped expand access to Medicaid and dental care to underserved communities. Most of her bills received bipartisan support.
Fellow Republican Pettyjohn said McBride often seeks the opinions of conservative lawmakers on bills. “She’s always coming to us and stepping out of the echo chamber and saying, ‘What can we do to polish this up a little bit and make it better?’
Her signature accomplishment was supporting paid family and medical leave in Delaware. It was personal for McBride.
Her partner, Clay, was 27 years old when he was diagnosed with oral cancer. Within a year, the prognosis was terminal. They brought forward their wedding plans. They asked their friend the Reverend Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, to officiate.
The couple married on the roof of their apartment building in August 2014, but Clay died in hospital four days later.
“The experience of being his caregiver changed me a lot,” McBride said.
“All the people who have to deal with what we dealt with, or worse, with no health insurance, no family support, no paid vacation, no job that allows them to keep paying their rent. I think about it,” she said. “Without support, I can’t imagine ever getting through even a fraction of what we’ve been through. It’s a moral failing in our society and our country.”
politics of grace
The word “grace” comes up a lot in McBride.
She does everything with “very grace and patience,” Lockman said.
“She handled it with much more grace than I would give,” said Matt Marshall, a high school friend, referring to McBride’s response to the Legislature’s bathroom bill.
In her 2018 memoir, McBride wrote a chapter titled “Amazing Grace” about the “beautiful acts of kindness” she witnessed during the final weeks of Clay’s life.
“When people experience loss, it can often be faith-shattering or faith-affirming. And for me, it was faith-affirming,” she said. .
In the room where Clay died, McBride felt the tangible presence of God, like a hand on her shoulder. It was a comforting manifestation of God’s love that never left her.
Ten years later, she often asks herself this question. “What would Andy do?” And she’s trying to follow the example of compassion and “principled grace” against anti-LGBTQ politicians. “His kindness and politeness gave me a north star.”
Some activists have criticized McBride for not pushing back more forcefully against the Capitol bathroom ban. She agrees that it’s important for transgender people to have access to public facilities.
“But the people who are talking about toilets are not transgender,” she says. “It’s the right-wing Republicans who are obsessed with toilets, trying to stir up division and create distractions.”
He said he will continue to respond carefully.
“Ultimately, a pluralistic and diverse democracy requires a certain foundation of kindness and grace,” McBride said. “And I believe in that so strongly that I try to call it out, even when it’s difficult.”
