WASHINGTON – An otherwise uneventful House committee hearing Tuesday afternoon quickly turned into a partisan showdown as lawmakers clashed over the proper way to address a transgender member of the committee.
The hearing before the Europe subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee was supposed to be a discussion of arms control, international security and U.S. assistance to Europe, but what came out of the hearing instead was a striking display of partisan polarization over the politics surrounding transgender people.
As he recognized Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) for her chance to question witnesses, Chairman Keith Self (R-Texas) misgendered her, addressing her as “Mr. McBride.”
McBride, who was elected to the House last November, became the first openly transgender member of Congress.
Offering something between a smile and a grimace, she pointedly thanked “Madam Chair” for the introduction, and turned toward the witnesses to begin her questioning.
But Rep. William Keating (D-Mass.), the subcommittee’s ranking member interrupted.
“Mr. Chairman, would you repeat what you just said when you introduced a duly elected representative from the United States of America?” Keating said.
Self obliged and again misgendered McBride.
“Mr. Chairman, you are out of order,” Keating shot back. “Mr. Chairman, have you no decency? I mean, I’ve come to know you a little bit but this is not decent.”
Self attempted to resume the hearing, but Keating refused to allow the hearing to continue until Self addressed McBride correctly.
With neither representative willing to back down, Self banged his gavel and declared the hearing adjourned, abruptly ending the hearing only about halfway through.
The showdown was a flashpoint in ongoing political dispute between the two parties over how to treat transgender people.
During President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress last week, he touted his administration’s slew of executive orders that target transgender individuals, including one to limit gender-affirming care and another barring transgender women from participating in women’s sports or serving in the military.
“I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” he said in the address.
Lawmakers took to X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly after Tuesday’s hearing to publish statements on the debacle.
On his official account, Self wrote “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” and reposted statements from Republican House colleagues, including one in which Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) referred to McBride by her “deadname,” the name she used before her transition.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) came to Self’s defense, misgendering McBride in an X post.
“He’s a man. Hearing adjourned,” she wrote. Last year, Mace introduced a resolution to amend the rules of the U.S. House of Representatives to bar transgender people from using House bathrooms not aligned with their sex assigned at birth; the policy was adopted by Speaker Mike Johnson.
McBride herself largely declined to jump into the fray.
“No matter how I’m treated by some colleagues, nothing diminishes my awe and gratitude at getting to represent Delaware in Congress,” McBride wrote on X.
