Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, on Friday condemned recent executive orders issued by President Trump that target transgender rights and accused the administration of using transgender Americans to further a political agenda.
Trump, since he first took office on Jan. 20, has signed a bevy of executive orders to roll back transgender rights and certain federal nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people. An order issued during his first hours in office declared the government recognizes only two sexes, male and female, and broadly prevents federal dollars from being spent on what Trump and his administration call “gender ideology.”
Federal prison officials, in compliance with the order, had attempted to move an incarcerated transgender woman to a men’s facility and deny her access to gender-affirming care before a Massachusetts judge stepped in to block them.
The Office of Personnel Management instructed federal agency heads this week to bar trans employees from using restrooms that match their gender identity and place workers whose job descriptions involve “promoting gender ideology” on administrative leave because of the order.
Three more executive orders signed this week target schools that teach “radical gender ideology,” transgender people serving openly in the military, and access to gender-affirming care for minors. Hospital systems in states across the country said they are pausing treatment for trans youth over fear the Trump administration could take away their funding.
“Since January 20th, I’ve heard from transgender constituents and their families who are living in fear of the Trump Administration’s relentless attacks on them,” McBride said Friday in a lengthy statement on the social platform X.
“Many Americans have good faith questions about topics regarding trans people, but this administration’s sweeping and malicious policies exploit those questions for political purposes,” McBride said. “I will not let my trans constituents — or any Delawarean — be used as a pawn in the Trump Administration’s efforts to purge patriots from federal service and gut lifesaving programs all in pursuit of lining the pockets of the uber wealthy. And I will continue to pull back the curtain on this administration’s blatant effort to divide this nation at the expense of working people.”
“Each time the Trump administration attacks a small vulnerable community, the ripple effects of hate echo across our society,” she added. “In Delaware, we have the capacity to be the antidote to this hate — where we see one another as neighbors and treat one another with respect.”
McBride’s comments mark a shift in tone for the first-term lawmaker, who has tended to stay above the fray, characterizing attacks on transgender rights — and her, personally — as “an effort to distract” from issues such as lowering costs of health care and groceries.
In November, after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) implemented a new policy barring transgender people from facilities that best align with their gender identity at the Capitol, McBride said she would comply. “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms,” she said.
In a recent interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, McBride said the Trump administration’s targeting of transgender people is part of “a strategy of misdirection.”
“This is a strategy as old as time,” she said. “Right-wing leaders will often target vulnerable and misunderstood communities in order to distract from what they’re doing that is deeply unpopular with the American people.”
Updated at 6:52 p.m. EST
