First trans member of Congress has arrived—and not a moment too soon

There’s never been a time in U.S. history when we’ve needed trans representation in government more than now. Our rights are being attacked and stripped at every level. Without someone who truly understands the trans experience in the room at a federal level, there’s little hope for an effective end to the bleeding. 

While the war is far from over, after 235 years we finally have an out trans member of Congress set to be sworn in this January. This could be a major step toward getting trans rights codified in the United States.

Sarah McBride has taken that historic step, with the race for Delaware’s only seat in the House of Representatives being called for her. McBride defeated Republican John Whalen III, NBC News reported, taking 57.6% of the vote with 63% of the states’ total votes in by 11:31 p.m. EST.

The win makes McBride the first out transgender person to serve in Congress, joining a shockingly small LGBTQ+ contingent in the House and Senate. She beat her Republican opponent, John Whalen III, who ran on an anti-immigration, anti-choice platform.

At only 34, McBride has already made an impressive name for herself, with her seat in Congress adding yet another “first” to the list. After working for the Human Rights Campaign and interning in the Obama-Biden White House, she became the first trans person to speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. The 2020 elections in her home state of Delaware made her the first trans person elected to a state senate, and in 2022, she also became the first trans incumbent to win re-election in a state senate.

Trans representation in Congress matters.

Every day, trans people have to fight to have our basic human rights acknowledged. Changing hearts and minds is no simple task, but it starts with making people understand that we exist. Trans representation in television and movies has helped people to understand us enough that we are at a point where McBride’s election to the House is something that can even happen. That speaks to just how much acceptance of the trans community has grown.

But while the media that got us here can be dismissed as “woke,” McBride’s role as the highest-ranking trans politician in the U.S. and a first at this level will be harder to ignore. Fictional representations can help people in marginalized communities understand themselves and push people outside those communities to understand the humans behind the stories. Because it is a step further and in the real world, McBride’s representation of the trans community in Congress can do all of that for the next generation of trans people.

That representation is obviously even more important right now. The increase in understanding of trans and gender-nonconforming identities has spurred a dramatic backlash from vocal and hateful minority groups. As the rights of trans youth and adults are attacked on the state and federal level, having someone who can speak to trans issues not as an intellectual concept but as a lived experience is valuable. 

We’ve already seen the impact of this across the country at the state level. In Virginia, Delegate Danica Roem (D) worked in the state House of Delegates (before being elected to the state Senate) to pass a bill to end anti-trans discrimination in health insurance. In 2023, state Rep. Leigh Finke (D), the first out trans person in the Minnesota Legislature, sponsored the bill that Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed to make Minnesota a trans refuge state. Having trans politicians in the conversation has helped move the needle on trans rights.

The visibility of McBride’s seat in the House is important not just for trans people and their loved ones but for challenging the anti-trans lobby and those who manage to sit on the fence. Many of the politicians pushing bills that will strip rights away from trans people have likely never actually knowingly met a trans person or at least not had regular day-to-day interactions with one. Having a trans person in the House of Representatives will give other members a chance to get to know a member of a group that has been demonized in speeches and in the media and learn that there is no truth to those lies. 

And if that doesn’t affect their perspective, if they want to say that trans people don’t have rights, at least they’ll have to say it to a trans person’s face. In 2023, state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D) told Montana lawmakers would have “blood on their hands” if they denied gender-affirming care. The matter drew national attention after the Republican speaker of the House prevented Zephyr from speaking on the floor when she refused to apologize for her comment. Without trans representation in that room, it’s possible that no one would have spoken up for trans equality as forcefully as Zephyr did and brought national attention to Republicans’ efforts to attack trans rights.

McBride’s seat comes with a lot of responsibility, expectations, and challenges. No one knows that better than McBride herself, and she has proven herself to be the perfect person for the job. Rather than running on LGBTQ+ concerns and matters of trans rights, her platform is about the issues that face the majority of people in her district: healthcare, reproductive freedom, workers’ rights, and criminal justice reform. She also has a history of reaching across the aisle to get bipartisan approval on policies like paid family leave. McBride’s bona fides on these popular issues will make the inevitable attacks calling her a radical leftist harder to carry any weight.

McBride has highlighted the importance of having that trans voice in the room, noting that “if you’re not at the table, then you are on the menu. And…people like many of us, we are on the menu right now.”  In an interview with CBS, she also acknowledged the impact knowing a trans person will have on the other members of the House, saying that “throughout history […] the power of proximity taps what I believe to be the most fundamental human emotion, which is empathy.” She’s also realist enough to recognize that the extreme right-wing likely won’t work with her, but points out that “they’re not gonna work with any Democrat. They can barely work with their own Republican colleagues.” 

McBride’s stint in the House won’t be easy, but she can pave the way for those who come in the future.