Rep. Sarah McBride Says Attacks on Her Gender Identity Show Jealousy of 'Bullies': 'Hurt People Hurt People' (Exclusive)
Her congressional campaign is the subject of the new documentary State of Firsts
The film premiered June 7 at the Tribeca FestivalRep. Sarah McBride refuses to let criticism bog her down.
The Delaware congresswoman made history in November 2024 when she became the first openly transgender person elected to the House of Representatives. However, her boundary-breaking win also came with hate, discrimination and deliberate misgendering by critics and colleagues.
McBride, whose trailblazing campaign is the subject of the new documentary State of Firsts, which premiered June 7 at the Tribeca Festival and will screen through June 11, tells PEOPLE that "it's not always easy" to face the critics. "It is hard and it gets to me," she says, adding, "I'm not new to hate."
"Every job I've ever had, I've had death threats," says McBride, who was a state senator and political advocate prior to joining Congress. "I'm not new to feeling out there and vulnerable."
The way McBride sees it, attacks on her gender identity aren't really about her.
"When people try to diminish me or impugn my dignity, it says a lot more about them than it does me," she says. "I truly believe that hurt people hurt people."
Since her first term in Congress began in January, McBride has been targeted by a bathroom bill from Rep. Nancy Mace or South Carolina — which bans transgender people from using restrooms that don't correspond with their sex at birth — and was intentionally and repeatedly misgendered by Texas Rep. Keith Self during a hearing.
Both moments are included in State of Firsts, which features a clip of Mace responding to a reporter who asks if her bathroom resolution is linked to McBride's arrival in Congress.
"Yes, and absolutely and then some," Mace replies.
McBride says in the documentary that she didn't realize the bathroom issue would blow up, but soon realized, "There will be members who will confront me in the women's restroom to have a viral moment."
She adds that she knew she would be targeted more as her campaign progressed, and once Republicans maintained control of the House after the 2024 election, she started to think, "They're going to try to ban me from the restroom."
While speaking with PEOPLE, McBride says she's undeterred by such attacks.
"Everyone deals with something about themselves that society tells them they should be ashamed of or that they should hide," she says. "The thing about so many of us who live openly and authentically is we have taken that thing that society has told us we should hide, and we've not only accepted it, but in many cases we are walking forward from a place of pride in it."
That confidence, McBride says, is something her critics want for themselves.
"The bullies see that power, they see that individual agency in conquering our own fears and our own insecurities, and they're jealous of it," McBride tells PEOPLE. "I am reminded in those moments that I am powerful just by being."
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The congresswoman even has kind words for her detractors, sharing a hopeful message for the people who've come after her.
"I hope that those who are not summoning the best versions of themselves, that they find healing, that they find courage, that they find love, and that they find a home within themselves and in this world that they so clearly yearn for," she says.
State of Firsts director Chase Joynt filmed McBride in the days before, during and after her historic campaign, capturing highs like the night she won her election, but also difficult moments like blatant disrespect from her colleagues in Washington and backlash from the trans community when she agreed to follow the Capitol's bathroom policy.
In a statement included in the State of Firsts' press notes, Joynt said, "We could not have anticipated the force with which Sarah herself would become the central target of transphobic assaults in the rise of Trump's second presidency."
McBride, who recently marked 100 days in office, tells PEOPLE that despite the hurdles she faced in the first few weeks and months as a Congresswoman, she's "confident" and "determined" — and her bullies have "moved on."
"They realized that I'm not gonna play their game," she says.
Read the original article on People
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