Trans U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) has endured vile treatment by Republicans since becoming the first out transgender member of Congress. In a way, the freshman representatives experience on the Hill is a microcosm for what trans people are enduring under this administration across the country: senseless, cruelhearted attacks that eviscerate peoples mental and physical health while simultaneously wasting time and distracting from the actual issues plaguing Americans. Related Rep. Sarah McBride on GOP attacks: Theyre employing the strategies of reality TV. Americas first trans congressperson opens up. While many queer and trans people disagree about how McBride should handle the hate being hurled at her by her colleagues, it is perfectly clear that the current administration has made tthis new brand of publicly paraded anti-trans vitriol has become increasingly socially acceptable. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today During an appearance on Ezra Kleins podcast, McBride expressed her thoughts on why polls confirm that support for trans people has waned as of late. Candidly, I think weve lost the art of persuasion, she said. Weve lost the art of change-making over the last couple of years. Were not in this position because of trans people. There was a very clear, well-coordinated, well-funded effort to demonize trans people, to stake out positions on fertile ground for anti-trans politics and to have those be the battlegrounds rather than some of the areas where theres more public support. Were not in this position because of the movement or the community, but clearly what weve been doing over the last several years has not been working to stave it off or continue the progress that we were making eight, nine, 10 years ago.Sometimes we have to understand that not fighting, not taking the bait, is not a sign of weakness. Its not unprincipled. Discipline and strategy are signs of strength. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE)She thinks the issues in messaging from the LGBTQ+ movement arose due to a false sense of securtity that spread after the Supreme Courts 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized marriage equality nationwide.There was a sense of cultural momentum that was this unending, cresting wave. There is this sense of a cultural victory that lulled us into a false sense of security and in many ways shut down needed conversations, McBride added.She said she thinks that many people who felt guilty for not initially supporting marriage equality decided not to make the same mistake again when it came to trans rights. Others, she said, merely decided its all the same movement so if they support one, they support the other. I think that resulted in a lot of us a lot of our movement stopping the conversation and ceasing doing the hard work of opening hearts and changing minds and telling stories that over 20 years had shifted and deepened understanding on gay identities that allowed for marriage equality to be built on solid ground, she said.The halted conversations, she said, also allowed misinformation campaigns to take hold and take advantage of that lack of understanding. The support for trans rights was a house built on sand, she declared.McBride also said she thinks the movement may have gone to Trans 201 or Trans 301 when people were still at a very much Trans 101 stage. Being expected to suddenly introduce yourself with pronouns and proactively support blurring the gender binary was simply too much too fast for a lot of people, she explained.We became absolutist not just on trans rights but across the progressive movement and we forgot that in a democracy we have to grapple with where the public authentically is and actually engage with it, she said. Politicians, she continued, have a duty of walking people to a place, rather than forcing them to catapult there.We should be ahead of public opinion, but we have to be within arms reach. If we get too far out ahead, we lose our grip on public opinion, and we can no longer bring it with us. And I think a lot of the conversations around sports and also some of the cultural changes that we saw in expected workplace behavior, etc. was the byproduct of maybe just getting too far out ahead and not actually engaging in the art of social change-making.She also said that it actually must be the communitys job to educate the wider public, but emphasized that doesnt mean the burden is on all of us. One of the problems weve had is that weve gone from: Its not my job as an individual person whos just trying to make it through the day to educate everyone to: No one from that community should educate, and frankly, we should just stop having this conversation because the fact that we are having this conversation at all is hurtful and oppressive,' she said.Maybe it is hurtful, but you cant foster social change if you dont have a conversation, she said. You cant change people if you exclude them. And I will just say, you cant have absolutism on the left or the right without authoritarianism.She pushed for the need for the movement not to alienate or cast out anyone who is not perfect on trans rights, like those who dont believe trans people should be discriminated against but are also unsure if they should freely participate in sports. Right now, the message from so many is, Youre not welcome, and your support for 90% of these policies is irrelevant,' McBride said. The fact that you diverge on one thing makes you evil. It is so harmful, and it completely betrays the lessons of every single social movement and civil rights movement in our countrys history, she added.Klein also asked McBride about the hate she has endured from House Republicans, led by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). McBride decided to ignore the attacks, which caused a lot of ire from her own community who thought she needed to boldly fight back. She strongly believes, however, that doing so would not have yielded anything but bad results. The first thing Id say is that the folks who were or are targeting me because of my gender identity in Congress are folks who, at this point, are really not working with any Democrats and can barely work with their own Republican colleagues, McBride said. I know that they are coming after me not because they are deeply passionate about bathroom policy. Theyre coming after me because theyre employing the strategies of reality TV. And the best way to get attention in a body of 435 people is to throw wine in someones face, McBride said.She said she would not be baited into a fight and give them not only the power of derailing me but the incentive to continue to come after me.Sometimes we have to understand that not fighting, not taking the bait, is not a sign of weakness. Its not unprincipled. Discipline and strategy are signs of strength, she said. She likened the situation to the young Black children walking calmly into newly integrated schools as people yelled slurs at them and said not responding was not normalizing the treatment they were enduring.Instead, what that student was doing was providing the public with a very clear visual, a very clear contrast, between unhinged hatred and basic dignity and grace, which is fundamental to humanity, she said.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.