Sarah McBride is the National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign and currently advocates for LGBTQ+ rights as an openly transgender woman. McBride began national activism as a student at American University in Washington, D.C. when she came out as a transgender woman while serving as the student body president.
From the start of her speech, McBride assured the audience that the challenge for trans rights broadly stood parallel to gay rights as an analogous experience. People who identify as cisgender do not have an analogous identity that is different from their assigned gender. McBride went on to describe the feeling of being “in the closet” as a continuous sentiment of being homesick. So, when LGBTQ+ members come out of the closet, they do not come out to be happy. Rather, they come out to be free, to alleviate pain, and to feel complete.
A plethora of injustices is known to follow a person’s identity as trans and with the trans lifestyle. Many openly or recognizably transgender people lose their jobs, are rejected from their families, become homeless, suffer from mental health deterioration, are denied private and public services, and are at higher risk of violence. McBride brought to light how transgender issues intersect with politics on local and national scales. Transgender people, especially after the election of Trump, have been refused healthcare and housing, have been targeted as members of the U.S. military, and struggle immensely to find employment. Much of what the LGBTQ+ community exists for and identifies with conflicts with the political desires of those in office and has much to do with power dynamics and the desire to sustain control.
Furthermore, McBride briefly mentioned the intersectionality between race and ethnicity (identities of people of color) and LGBTQ+ identity. The murders of black transwomen occur daily as a prime example of a combination of transphobia, misogyny, and racism.
McBride participated in much work and activism during her undergraduate days at American University. The most prominent advice that she gave for universities to increase the safety and inclusion of members of the transgender community is to improve policymaking, to decrease tokenization without true appreciation, to recruit more trans students and faculty, and to courageously speak out against ridicule and injustice. McBride has stood fearless and diligent as a leader in and an advocate for the trans community in the college realm and the U.S. abroad.
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