Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride (D), the first openly transgender state senator, says that she believes that the United States will “eventually” elect a transgender president.
In a clip from an interview on “The Carlos Watson Show” shared exclusively with The Hill, McBride said that the country is “making progress toward more and more trans people running for office, winning, and serving in positions throughout government at every level.”
“I think it’s eventually likely that this country will elect an LGBTQ president and eventually a transgender president,” McBride, who has also served as the press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign, told Watson in the interview set to air Saturday.
In response to later questions from Watson, co-founder and CEO of media company OZY, on how “the life experience of being trans” could “end up translating in terms of policy,” McBride said that “one obvious is the perspective on issues around LGBTQ equality.”
“We know that if you’re not at the table then you’re on the menu, as they say,” the LGBTQ activist added.
“I see very clearly as a trans person how transphobia links with homophobia, how both of those link with misogyny and racism, but then on the flip side how my whiteness shields me from some of the worst discrimination that comes the trans community’s way,” McBride continued.
She went on to say, “I think trans candidates, LGBTQ candidates, women, people of color, what we all bring to the table is this understanding that the longstanding distinction in our politics and economic issues and social issues is a false distinction.”
“The fight for equality for any community isn’t about some abstract moral principle,” McBride explained. “It’s about making sure that everyone can get a job that pays the bills, health care that meets their needs, a quality education that prepares them for the future, and safe communities where every person is treated with dignity.”
The interview comes as a number of states have proposed or passed legislation that advocacy groups say could threaten opportunities and access to services for transgender people.
Governors in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee in recent months have signed into law restrictions on transgender athletes, and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) on Wednesday said he intended to sign a bill passed in the state legislature that would prevent transgender middle and high school athletes from participating in team sports that match their gender identity.
In Arkansas, the state legislature recently overturned a veto from its governor, Asa Hutchinson (R), against legislation that would ban gender-affirming care such as hormones and puberty blockers for trans minors, and bills in more than a dozen other states have been proposed specifically targeting medical treatment for transgender youth.
This comes despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of respondents in a new poll conducted by PBS NewsHour-NPR-Marist said they opposed laws limiting the rights of transgender Americans.