Sarah McBride is in the eye of the storm – and there may be no way out
A vicious bullying campaign from her Republican colleagues-to-be about women’s bathrooms in the Capitol has put America’s first openly transgender member of congress in an impossible position, writes Io Dodds
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Your support makes all the difference.Sarah McBride of Delaware must have known this was likely to happen.
As the first openly transgender person in history to be elected to the US House of Representatives, she's no doubt faced down plenty of abuse. Trans Americans are all too aware of the Republican Party's determination to use their lives as fuel for the culture war.
Even so, the GOP's reaction to her historic win has been shockingly vicious.
On Monday, South Carolina representative Nancy Mace filed a motion to ban McBride and any other trans women from all women's bathrooms in the Capitol, claiming that McBride’s very presence threatened the "safety and dignity" of her colleagues-to-be.
"This is not okay," said Mace, who posted or shared posts about bathrooms on social media 326 times in 72 hours this week, in an interview with ABC. "I'm a survivor of rape, I'm a survivor of sexual abuse, and I'm not going to allow any man in any female private spaces. Period, end of story."
Far right firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene backed her up, attacking McBride personally while repeatedly misgendering her. "[S]he's a man, a biological male," she said. "[She] needs to respect my space... because [s]he is not a woman."
If this was a normal place of employment, a HR manager would call this workplace bullying – and we’re not even on day one of McBride’s new job. As it happens, McBride is also a survivor of sexual assault, who explained how the myth of the "trans bathroom predator" was a key factor in keeping her silent.
But on Wednesday House speaker Mike Johnson gave Mace and MTG's attacks the force of regulation, declaring that all single-sex Capitol bathrooms would be restricted to people of that birth sex.
Mace also filed a bill expanding her bathrooms crusade to every federal facility, from museums through national parks to US Post Office branches. She's been open about the animus behind her attacks, telling the MAGA broadcaster Newsmax on Wednesday: "It is offensive that a man in as skirt thinks that he is my equal; that his challenges are the same as mine."
None of this is surprising to trans people — journalist Parker Molloy even predicted it last week. The posturing is also not going to stop McBride from doing her job, since all members have their own bathroom and unisex toilets exist throughout the Capitol. Instead, those most affected will be trans staffers, interns, reporters, and public visitors.
What's notable, though, is McBride's cautiousness. "I'm not here to fight about bathrooms," she said in a statement on Wednesday. "I'm here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families."
While calling the attacks "an effort to distract from the real issues facing this country," she largely declined to hit back directly against her harassers and said that she would comply with Johnson's rules.
As far back as August, McBride – a friend of the Biden family who has written movingly about losing her husband to cancer when she was only 24 – signalled that she would take this approach when my colleague Eric Garcia asked her at the Democratic National Convention how she would push back against MTG and her ilk.
"Well, I won't let them distract me," McBride said. "My focus is going to be on being the best member of Congress I can be... let their circus, let their cruelty, let their preoccupation with manufactured culture wars contrast with my approach to working on issues that actually keep people up at night."
Democrats have largely followed McBride’s lead, with a few outspoken exceptions, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and John Fetterman. In fact, it was reportedly McBride herself who asked her fellow Dems to not to make a big thing of it.
The strategy behind this play is clear enough: Let Republicans cast themselves as culture war obsessives, willing to personally vilify a colleague for political points, while the Democrats gracefully rise above it and look statesmanlike by comparison.
Speaking personally, I also understand the desire not to be goaded into a battle over one's own humanity. When I came out as a trans woman in 2021, I was excited to start writing openly about my experiences and my community. Still, I promised myself that I would also keep covering other issues, to be recognized as a reporter first and a Person of Gender second.
Being the first minority in any institution can, frankly, suck. Enemies and allies alike will reduce you to your identity, no matter what you do. "The political career of this individual is all about being transgender," claimed Newsmax anchor Greg Kelly, ignoring McBride's long and consistent history of emphasizing bread-and-butter issues.
But trying to rise above has its own dangers. Some trans people felt deeply demoralized and betrayed by McBride's statement, arguing that it set a precedent for further hate campaigns and sent a message that others should acquiesce when their rights come under attack. Others wished the Democrats had been more proactive from the start about supporting their incoming colleague.
Throughout the country, conservative invective against trans people appears to have inspired a new wave of violence and violent threats against trans people. For many, that is exactly the issue that keeps them up at night.
McBride’s dilemma echoes the wider debate currently eating at the Democratic Party about how to deal with Republicans’ terror tactics. On the one hand, Kamala Harris was soundly defeated by a man who explicitly campaigned on comprehensively rolling back trans rights, and who made her (supposedly) trans-friendly past a centerpiece of his campaign.
On the other, Harris largely did try to rise above, barely talking about the issue and largely refusing to even address Trump’s attacks. To some progressives, that is proof that ceding the whole issue to conservatives will only invite further disaster.
Yet while her party searches its soul, McBride is in an impossible position. When your workplace bullies are supported and protected by your institution's leadership — Republicans will control Congress for at least the next two years — you're basically screwed either way.
Pushing back gives them the fight they want, and guarantees you'll stay in the crosshairs. But not pushing back risks emboldening them to bully others – and sends the message that their behaviour is acceptable.
It's an unwinnable game for McBride, as it would be for any of us. Unfortunately, the GOP’s commitment to total war means refusing to play is not an option .
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