A bit of a disturbance occurred at a meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Europe Subcommittee in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday, 11 March. Subcommittee chair Keith Self, a Republican from Texas, introduced committee member Sarah McBride as ‘Mr McBride’.
McBride, representing Delaware’s at-large district as a member of the Democratic Party, is the first transgender person elected to Congress in US history. He was born a man and now identifies as a woman. Representative McBride quipped back with ‘Thank you, Madame Chair,’ to Self, and was ready to go forward with his statement before the subcommittee. However, ranking member Bill Keating, a Democratic representative from the state of Massachusetts, could not leave the issue with that.
He chimed in and asked the Chairman to repeat the introduction, which he eventually did, calling on ‘Mr McBride’ again.
Keith also explained that ‘we have set the standard on the floor of the House,’ but that did not stop Keating from losing his temper. With noticeable indignation, he asked the subcommittee chair: ‘Have you no decency?’ and told him: ‘You are out of order.’ He then declared that the hearing cannot go forward with him present unless the Chairman introduces ‘a duly elected Representative the right way’. In response, Congressman Keith adjourned the hearing.
Representative McBride has responded to the incident on the social media platform X.
Since President Trump took office, a number of executive and legislative actions have been taken to curtail the transgender movement in the United States.
On the same day he took office, 20 January, President Trump signed Executive Order 14168, which bears the title ‘Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government’. In it, this very issue faced by Representative McBride is addressed in an indirect way. The order calls for the words ‘male, female, men, women, boys, and girls’ to be interpreted as it refers to biological sex in each context. Thus, it clearly prioritizes one’s biological sex over their gender identity.
That Executive Order only refers to all employees of the Federal Government, which includes Members of Congress as well.
In addition, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, announced in November 2024, shortly after President Trump’s victory in the presidential election, that all bathroom facilities within the Capitol Building must be used by people with corresponding biological sex.
And the American public seems to be widely supportive of these measures. According to a poll by New York Times/Siena from January 2025, an overwhelming majority of people, 77 per cent, agrees with the statement: ‘Society has gone too far or far enough accommodating trans people.’ That includes 62 per cent of Democrats who responded to the survey.
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