U.S. elections 2024: Sarah McBride to be country’s first transgender member of Congress

She came out about her identity when running for student body president at the American University in Delaware

In a first this U.S. election, Sarah McBride becomes the first transgender member at the Congress – securing the opportunity to represent Delaware. She defeated her rival James Whalen III, a former police officer whose campaign was centred around curbing federal spending and averting illegal immigration.

“Delaware has sent the message loud and clear that we must be a country that protects reproductive freedom, that guarantees paid leave and affordable childcare for all our families, that ensures that housing and healthcare would be available to everyone and that this is a democracy that is big enough for all of us,” she wrote on social media platform ‘X’.  

Decision to come out

The incoming Congressperson came out about her identity when she was running for the student body president at American University in Washington D.C.

“At the time, I was scared. I worried that my dreams and my identity were mutually exclusive,” she recalled in a 2016 convention. However, at the expiry of her tenure at the same university in 2012, she wrote in an editorial of the university’s publication, “For my entire life, I have wrestled with my gender identity. It was only after the experiences of this year that I was able to come to terms with what had been my deepest secret: I’m transgender”.  

Later in 2020, the 90s-born Ms. McBride would go on to pursue her political career, becoming the first openly transperson to serve as a state senator.

“It really felt like America was blazing a path to the future. But since then, the far-right has tried to use the LGBTQ community as a scapegoat for their policy failures,” she wrote on ‘X’ recently.  

Policy advocacy 

The incoming Congressperson, who has been into community advocacy, borrows an experience from having worked with former Governor Jack Markell, the late Attorney General Beau Biden, and as a White House intern during the Obama Administration. She has also served as the spokesperson for Human Rights Campaign – United States’ largest LGBTQ equal rights organisation.  

The profile on her website illustrates about having passed legislations “expanding access to health care, requiring mental health and media literacy education in public schools, promoting green technologies, and protecting workers and families”. In her first term, she passed the Healthy Delaware Families Act that provisioned paid family and medical leave to workers throughout the First State.  

In fact, Ms. McBride was the youngest recipient of the Order of the First State – the nation’s highest civilian honour.  

Other than politics, she has taught public policy at the University of Delaware and is the author of a 2018 memoir, “Tomorrow Will Be Different.” 

Personal Life 

She married her late husband Andrew Cray in 2014 and lost him to cancer five days after their wedding. She stated in a 2016 convention, that they fell in love “fighting for equality”. “Knowing Andy left me profoundly changed. More than anything, his passing taught me that everyday matters when it comes to building a world where every person can live their life to the fullest,” her 2019 Facebook post reads.  

The same post elaborating about her late husband’s quest to ensure healthcare “they so deserved”, further expressed her biggest wish “to help to create a world better than he even dreamed of.” 

Published - November 06, 2024 10:51 am IST