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Sarah McBride, Delaware state senator and candidate for United States Representative, speaks to a voter outside of a coffee shop in Wilmington, Delaware, on Oct. 26, 2024.
Delaware Dem becomes first openly transgender federal lawmaker
The United States has elected its first openly transgender member of Congress. On Tuesday, Democrat Sarah McBride, a state senator from Delaware, won the state’s at-large seat in the House of Representatives. The seat has been a reliable win for the Democrats, but McBride won a competitive primary.
Her win comes against the backdrop of a Trump campaign and broader Republican anti-transgender push, including tens of millions of dollars in advertising. In recent years, Congress and state legislatures have advanced bills to restrict transgender health care, limit the discussion of transgender issues in schools, and block transgender athletes from participating in organized sports.
The Republicans secured the White House and Senate on Tuesday and may end up winning the House. The Trump administration and Congress could then further push for anti-transgender legislation, a fight into which McBride may be drawn front and center.
Trump has promised to ask Congress to ban the registration of any gender at birth except male or female and to repeal the transgender Title IX protections enacted by the Biden administration.Activists rallied against Premier Danielle Smith's proposed LGBTQ2S+ regulations and legislation that impacts transgender and non-binary youth, on Feb. 03, 2024, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Culture wars target transgender rights
Conservative politicians on both sides of the border are bracing for the progressive response to legislation critics say discriminates against members of the transgender community.
In Alberta, populist United Conservative Premier Danielle Smith has introduced a series of measures she says boost parental rights and protect children. All reassignment surgeries for minors will be prohibited; puberty blockers and hormone therapies will be barred for those 15 and under, and limited for “mature teens;” parents must consent to children 15 and under altering their name or pronouns in school; while athletes assigned male sex at birth will not be able to compete in women's sports.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Smith’s plan “the most anti-LGBT policies anywhere in the country.”
Meanwhile, in Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has introduced legislation that excludes transgender people from “sex-segregated spaces” and requires that they list their sex at birth on their birth certificate. A similar move to require that their sex at birth be listed on driver's licenses was defeated.
Transgender activists in Iowa compared the proposed legislation to requiring gay people to wear a pink triangle during the Holocaust. Others have pointed out that the birth certificate provision is a violation of privacy in a state that bars governments from disclosing medical information on IDs, including COVID-19 vaccination status.
Democratic Rep. Sharon Stechman, in Iowa’s General Assembly, summed it up well: “I can think of a million other things we should be doing besides going after 0.29% of our population.”