‘A Bounty on My Head’: Congress’s First Transgender Member Faces the Trump Era
Representative Sarah McBride, Democrat of Delaware and the first openly transgender member of Congress, realized shortly after she won her race that going to the bathroom on Capitol Hill was going to pose a problem in her new job. “The more I thought about it, I realized that it would not be safe for me to use the restrooms,” she said Monday over coffee, after attending President Trump’s inauguration.
That morning, she sat on her hands in the Capitol Rotunda as Mr. Trump received a standing ovation for stating that “there are only two genders: male and female.” On her way out, Ms.
McBride ended up walking next to Pete Hegseth, the embattled defense secretary nominee who has railed against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the military. “Surreal,” was all she had to say about that.
But such awkward interactions are a reminder of the complicated position Ms. McBride occupies in Washington. She has entered Congress as a barrier-breaking representative of a small and vulnerable population at a time when L.G.B.T.Q.
