When Delaware state senator and Representative-elect Sarah McBride won her seat in Congress, it was one of the few bright spots for trans people in a frightfully transphobic election cycle. Since McBride’s 2020 senate win, we’ve been rooting for her as one of the few trans women showing up for us in Washington.
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Then again, should we have expected anything else from Marjorie Taylor Greene?
But we knew that in a moment when Republicans have the majority, McBride was going to have a rough time facing down bigotry and bullying on the hill. When Cruella De Vil cosplayer Nancy Mace filed a resolution that would force McBride to use the men’s bathroom in Congress, trans people expected a fight. But as other Republicans doubled down—including House Speaker Mike Johnson—McBride quickly folded, releasing a statement in which she explained that she’s “not here to fight about bathrooms.”
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But this decision is bigger than McBride. By caving in so quickly to the transphobic demands of the right, many trans folks feel that McBride is setting a dangerous precedent in terms of how all other trans people will be treated on the Hill.
It's literally the first rule and Sarah McBride failed it.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) November 20, 2024 at 3:31 PM
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i am stressed about the idea of not being safe using the restroom i've been using for almost a decade at the DC airports but moreso i am stressed for trans friends in the press, legal profession, or who work in politics for whom working on federal property is a daily occurrence
— lauren (@lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com) November 20, 2024 at 3:33 PM
As journalist and advocate Erin Reed explained in a recent TikTok, McBride’s response is already having an impact on transgender staffers in Washington, who fear they’ll be subject to the same treatment.
Because McBride’s decision isn’t just a fight about bathrooms. She has agreed to essentially be treated not as the woman she is, but as the man Republicans insist on seeing her as. This means that other members of Congress could address her with incorrect pronouns and honorifics, and she’d have to just deal with it.
Framing the bathroom bill as a distraction might seem like the best way for McBride to move forward, and she does deserve a lot of grace for being the first trans congresswoman to have to deal with these infuriating issues up close. But the bathroom bills, as we know, aren’t a distraction at all. They’re a way to humiliate, shame, and stigmatize trans people further, as well as potentially outing us in public.
There was a time, long ago, where McBride knew how important it was to not comply with bathroom policies.
— Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 5:57 PM
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We’ve come too far to cave into respectability politics, especially in the current climate.
LIBERALISM WIN: transgender representative completely gives into her rights being taken away in an honorable, classy way 🔥
— onion person (@junlper.beer) November 20, 2024 at 2:01 PM
In the wake of the election, trans folks are reminding each other that a crucial tenet of resistance is failing to comply with rulings that are clearly bigoted. Even if McBride isn’t able to do that right now, we can still take that message to heart.
to all the haters of this post, do not obey in advance. that's just surrendering to fascism! (also the trans after homophobic was a typo)
— mady (@madye2.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 3:55 PM
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