Trans lawmaker says Dems should welcome differing views of transgenderism

Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Delaware, doesn’t want to see the Democratic Party lose support due to an overly dogmatic approach to transgender issues.

McBride, a transgender woman and the first transgender representative in Congress, says the party should welcome disagreement on the issue.

“We have to create more space in our tent,” McBride told NOTUS in a recent interview. “If, for instance, we want to have a majoritarian coalition – not just electorally, but specifically on issues around trans rights – that, by necessity, is going to have to include people who have a range of thoughts.” 

The statements come after Democrats suffered losses in the 2024 election, stemming in part from the party’s strong support of transgenderism and the LGBTQ agenda.  

A single ad by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump that showed Kamala Harris declaring her support for taxpayer-funded sex-change operations for prisoners may have swayed the electorate by nearly three percentage points, a huge margin in a political campaign. And national polling shows Americans overwhelmingly favor keeping biological men out of women’s sports. 

However, Reps. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, and Tom Suozzi, D-New York, faced pushback for saying they opposed allowing male transgender-identifying athletes in girls’ sports, but McBride said they should be embraced. 

“I think it is an incredibly problematic instinct that many have to excommunicate people who aren’t in lockstep with you on every policy, or even aren’t in lockstep with you on the messaging,” he said. 

McBride’s approach comes as Payton McNabb, a woman who was injured by a transgender athlete while she was in high school, penned an op-ed for the Daily Wire speaking out on behalf of female athletes. 

McNabb, who Trump honored during his joint address to Congress earlier this month, suffered severe neck and head injuries that left her partially paralyzed on one side after a male spiked the ball at her face during a volleyball game in 2022, ending her hopes of playing collegiate sports. 

But during Trump’s speech, Democrats refused to stand for her or any of the people he honored, including D.J. Daniel, a 13-year-old cancer survivor who was made an honorary Secret Service agent. 

McNabb derided Democrats for not even “looking in my direction,” and for claiming the transgender athlete issue is rare and impacts few people. 

“I am living proof of what can happen when just ‘one person’ is forced to give up her sex-based right to fair and safe competition,” she wrote. “Do my rights not count?” 

McNabb said the frequency of these incidents is irrelevant to the discussion because they should never happen. 

“The correct number of women who should be forced to compete against them is zero,” she wrote. “And if congressional Democrats refuse to take our safety seriously, then state legislatures must pick up the slack for them.” 

A January 2025 New York Times poll found that 79% of Americans oppose male transgender-identifying athletes competing in girls’ sports, while just 18% support it.