‘I’m not here to fight about bathrooms:’ Sarah McBride issues statement after transphobic attacks on her
Sarah McBride of Delaware became a pioneer this year when she became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress. Unfortunately, the bigotry and hatred came out right away. Nancy Mace, a Republican, introduced a resolution on November 18 to prevent McBride and all other transgender women from using the women’s restrooms. The existence of trans people, who hadn’t done a single thing to her besides want to use the toilet in peace, infuriated her that much.
Then Marjorie Taylor Greene got involved because of course she did. Greene, whose job is basically just “being unhinged” went on the far-right TV channel Real America’s Voice and called McBride, “a man pretending to be a woman.” She claimed “It’s like a physical assault for a man to come in, charging in to our private places.” But she never had an issue with Donald Trump’s infamous “grab them by the p***y” comment.
On Wednesday, which also happened to be Transgender Day of Remembrance, House Speaker Mike Johnson declared that all trans people had to use the bathroom of their assigned gender at birth. He said in a statement, “All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex. Women deserve women’s only spaces.”
But he failed to answer the question that virtually all the bathroom-banners have failed to answer: what about trans men? If a trans man has to use the bathroom of the gender assigned him at birth, there will be a man in the women’s bathroom anyway. This has not been thought through. Transphobia never is. And Sarah McBride has borne the brunt of Republican ignorance.
However, she chose to respond in a very classy way. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, she brought the conversation back to her politics and said, “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms, I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families.”
She went on, “Like all members, I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them. This effort to distract from the real issues facing this country hasn’t distracted me over the last several days.”
McBride’s statement was the very definition of “they go low, we go high.” She talked about how she looked forward to “getting to know my future colleagues on both sides of the aisle” and how “each of us were sent here because voters saw in us something that they value.” She concluded, “I have loved seeing those qualities in the future colleagues that I’ve met and I look forward to seeing those qualities in every member come January. I hope all of my colleagues will seek to do the same with me.”
It was a excellent statement: measured, polite, pointed. But because the platform once called Twitter is now overrun with transphobes (including, of course, owner Elon Musk) trolls piled onto McBride in the comments. Hopefully, she will be able to ignore them and continue doing her good work. We’re all rooting for her.
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