U.S. Rep.-elect Sarah McBride will be sworn in as the first openly transgender member of Congress on Jan. 3. The Democrat's political victory comes during a reckoning for transgender rights, and after an election filled with campaign ads and politicians demeaning trans people.
Trans trailblazer Sarah McBride navigates a brutal reception in Congress with graceShohei Ohtani wins 3rd AP Male Athlete of the Year award‘Wallace & Gromit’ are back for a full-length adventure with a familiar foeHow to catch the Quadrantids, the first meteor shower of 2025Musk helped kill a congressional spending bill.
For her part, McBride tried to defuse the situation, saying she would follow the rules. “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms,” the 34-year-old U.S.-Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., gives her farewell speech on the Senate floor during a special session, her last day as a Delaware state senator, at the Delaware Legislative Hall in Dover, Del., Monday, Dec. 16, 2024.
“We’re a family,” said state Sen. Brian Pettyjohn, a Republican colleague who walked over to hug McBride. “We’re going to disagree on a lot of things, but we don’t have the vitriol.” U.S.-Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., laughs with fellow lawmakers after her farewell speech on the Senate floor during a special session, her last day as a Delaware state senator, at the Delaware Legislative Hall in Dover, Del., Monday, Dec. 16, 2024.
U.S.-Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., right, is greeted by Alexis Wrease, Delaware Senate majority deputy communications director, center, and Jenna Greenlee, Delaware Senate majority digital communications specialist, left, as she arrives for her last day as a Delaware state senator at the Delaware Legislative Hall in Dover, Del., Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. Growing up in Wilmington, McBride was the type of child who practiced Democratic political speeches in her bedroom at a makeshift podium.
U.S.-Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., center, talks with Delaware Senate Republican Minority Whip Brian Pettyjohn from the 19th district on the Senate floor on McBride’s last day as a Delaware state senator at the Delaware Legislative Hall in Dover, Del., Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. U.S.-Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., walks from the Senate floor on her last day as a Delaware state senator at the Delaware Legislative Hall in Dover, Del., Monday, Dec. 16, 2024.
David McBride, Sarah’s father, said that kind of support has made all the difference for their family. “Our life and Sarah’s life have been made by the response that we and she got first from our friends, our church, our community.” As an activist at 22, McBride was instrumental in helping pass a transgender nondiscrimination law in Delaware. She worked as the spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, a leading LGBTQ-rights group. In 2016, she became the first openly trans person to speak at the Democratic National Convention.
The Rev. Dr. Gregory Knox Jones pauses during an interview with the Associated Press at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. A photo of U.S.-Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., with her husband Andy Cray is seen on a shelf in her Wilmington, Del., home, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. Cray died from cancer in 2014. Before working with McBride, Democratic state Sen. Elizabeth Lockman thought “she was probably a bit of a show pony, so good at presenting herself, public speaking,” and already destined for a larger stage.
David and Sally McBride, parents of U.S.-Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., talk during a television interview with the Associated Press at the Delaware Legislative Hall in Dover, Del., Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. U.S.-Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., signs her desk drawer on the Senate floor on her last day as a Delaware state senator at the Delaware Legislative Hall in Dover, Del., Monday, Dec. 16, 2024.
Pettyjohn, her Republican colleague, appreciated that McBride would often seek conservative members’ input on legislation. “She’s always one to come over, to make that effort to get outside that echo chamber and say, ‘What can we do to polish it up some, to make it better?’” Her partner Cray was 27 when he was diagnosed with oral cancer. Within a year, the prognosis was terminal. They moved up their wedding plans. They asked the Rev. Gene Robinson, a friend and the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, to officiate.
“She handled that with far more grace than I would have shown,” said Mat Marshall, a friend since high school, referencing McBride’s reaction to the congressional bathroom bill. In the room where Cray died, McBride felt God’s presence in a tangible way, like a hand on her shoulder — a comforting manifestation of God’s love that has never left her.
Delaware Gender Joe Biden Gene Robinson Barack Obama Jill Biden Mike Johnson Jack Markell United States House Of Representatives General News MD State Wire Congress DC Wire Elizabeth Lockman Politics Nancy Mace Elections Andrew Cray Brian Pettyjohn Religion U.S. News Washington News Beau Biden U.S. Republican Party Delaware State Government Washington News U.S. News
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