Sarah McBride argues for new path on trans rights: “We’ve lost the art of persuasion”

Sarah McBride says uncompromising politics are on a path towards sending LGBTQ+ advocates to a “really, really miserable self-righteous, morally pure club in the gulag.”

In a recent interview with star political journo Ezra Klein, the first out transgender person elected to Congress stresses the need to shed ideological purity, and embrace conversation and compromise.

“I think we’ve lost the art of persuasion,” she says. “We’ve lost the art of change-making over the last couple of years.”

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“We’re not in this position because of trans people. There was a very clear, well-coordinated, well-funded effort to demonize trans people, to stake out positions on fertile ground for anti-trans politics and to have those be the battlegrounds—rather than some of the areas where there’s more public support.”

Throughout the 95-minute interview (all of which is worth a listen), McBride returns to the successful campaign for marriage equality, and how gay rights advocates shifted public opinion over decades. She references the embrace of Barack Obama, who was against gay marriage when he was first elected president.

“Where would we have been in 2007 and 2008 if not only we had not tolerated the fact that Barack Obama was ostensibly not for marriage equality then, but if we had said to voters: Even if you vote against the marriage ban, but aren’t quite comfortable with marriage yet, then you’re a bigot and you don’t belong in our coalition — where would that movement have been?” she asks.

A true trailblazer, McBride served in Delaware’s state senate before being elected to represent the blue state in Congress last November.

Almost immediately, the Democrat found herself on the receiving end of smears from unhinged South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace, who went full potty patrol. She successfully lobbied House Speaker Mike Johnson to ban trans people from using public bathrooms in the Capitol that correspond with their gender identity.

In response, McBride ignored Mace’s performative transphobia, and settled into her job representing more than 1.5 million people. “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms,” she said at the time. “I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down the costs facing families.”

When facing cartoonish bigotry from GOP lawmakers–such as when a Texas rep. misgendered her during a committee hearing–she’s responded with humor rather than righteous indignation.

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Despite the tantrums from some of her Republican colleagues, McBride has forged relationships across the aisle. She recently talked about how their cruelty propelled more compassionate members of the GOP to reach out.

McBride’s relationships with House Republicans, all of whom voted against trans women playing women’s sports, shows her willingness to forge connections with people who hold differing views.

She thinks it’s one of her most important jobs as a legislator.

“We became absolutist—not just on trans rights but across the progressive movement—and we forgot that in a democracy we have to grapple with where the public authentically is and actually engage with it,” she tells Klein.

Indeed, the trans movement is at a perilous moment. The current administration has tried to eliminate trans people from public life, instituting bans on healthcare, military service and even the ability to obtain passports that align with their gender identity (a federal judge has blocked the latter order).

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, opening up the legal door for other Republican-led states to institute similar restrictions.

Polls show right-wing jurists and politicians mirror some aspects of public opinion. Over the last three years, Pew Research says support for protecting trans people from discrimination dropped 8 points, while laws requiring trans people to use bathrooms that match their biological sex gained 8 points.

The divide between advocates and public opinion is most stark when it comes to trans women playing women’s sports: 75% of Americans are in opposition.

McBride says the sports issue encapsulates the downside of pushing absolutist policies.

“There is a big difference between banning trans young people from extracurricular programs consistent with their gender identity and recognizing that there’s room for nuance in this conversation,” she adds. “When you create a binary all-on or all-off option for people, you’re going to have a lot of imperfect allies who are going to inevitably choose the all-off option.”

As McBride points out, the decline in support on trans rights fits into an overall regression on gender issues and LGBTQ+ rights. In the years after Obergefell, she says the LGBTQ+ movement lulled itself into a “false sense of security.”

Riding a wave, advocates and progressives felt like they were on the ascent and didn’t need to convince anybody else.

The current cultural moment shows they were wrong.

“I know that when you’re asking a marginalized person to extend grace in a conversation, you’re asking much more of that marginalized person,” McBride says. “But change-making isn’t always easy, and it’s not always fair.”

With overwhelming support on issues such as protecting trans people against hate crimes (+36), banning employment discrimination (+33) and allowing trans people to serve in the military (+22), the path towards change-making may not be as daunting as it appears.

McBride’s believes conversing with people, rather than scolding them, is the best way initiate progress. Given the current landscape, there may be no other choice.

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