Democrats start to rage at GOP anti-trans attacks on McBride
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Rep. Sarah McBride speaks at a Human Rights Campaign dinner in New York City on Feb. 1. Photo: Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Human Rights Campaign
House Democrats are finally finding a way to flash their anger when Republicans purposefully refer to Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly transgender woman in Congress, as a man.
Why it matters: McBride herself has since November advised fellow Democrats not to get baited into fights over her identity and to instead shift the conversation to issues of substance — housing, health care, inflation.
- The guidance has stayed largely consistent even as multiple Republicans have publicly misgendered the Delaware freshman, sources told Axios.
- But there are caveats now — and they are emerging more and more as GOP attacks have intensified.
Driving the news: The topic lurched to the surface on Wednesday when Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), chairing a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing, said, "I now recognize the representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride."
- McBride rapidly shot back: "Thank you, madame chair."
- Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the subcommittee, then interjected and angrily laid into Self: "Mr. Chairman you are out of order. Mr. Chairman, have you no decency?"
- Self then adjourned the hearing.
Zoom out: This was not the first time one of McBride's colleagues questioned her identity.
- Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) led a crusade to ensure McBride would not be able to access women's bathrooms at the Capitol, prompting Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to institute a transgender bathroom ban for the House.
- Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), while presiding over the House in February, said: "The chair recognizes the gentleman from Delaware, Mr. McBride, for five minutes."
What they're saying: McBride tore into these Republicans during a press conference at House Democrats' annual retreat on Thursday.
- "I appear to live rent-free in the minds of some of my Republican colleagues. I wish that they would spend even a fraction of the time that they spend thinking about me, thinking about how to lower costs," she said.
- "They are obsessed with culture war issues," she added. "It is weird, and it is bizarre."
What we're hearing: McBride's advice to colleagues that they generally shouldn't get drawn into constant pitched battles over her gender identity hasn't changed, multiple senior House Democrats told Axios.
- But she also hasn't discouraged "organic" expressions of genuine outrage like Keating's rejoinder to Self, sources said.
- House Democrats are trying to avoid treating McBride as "the voice for every trans person in America," one senior House Democrat explained.
- But "if a colleague's going to get attacked," the lawmaker said, members "aren't going to sit around and not respond."
Zoom out: To that end, some House Democrats are leaping to McBride's defense — not necessarily as a transgender woman, but as simply a coworker.
- Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) said she is "furious that [Republicans] are treating one of our colleagues — and one of THEIR colleagues — in this disrespectful and bullying way."
- "It's so revealing of what small people they are and how they have lost their way," she added.
The bottom line: "I don't need to be fodder for everyone's 15 minutes," McBride told Axios in an interview.
- "What we saw [from Keating] is a genuine moment between two colleagues who respect one another and have gotten to know one another — and one of those colleagues standing up for the other," she said.
- It was, she declared, a "purely authentic moment."
