A congressional hearing came to a tense and abrupt ending Tuesday in a confrontation over how to identify the first openly transgender member of Congress.
Rep. Keith Self, the Texas Republican chair of the House Foreign Relations Subcommittee, started the confrontation by identifying Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware as “Mr. McBride.”
McBride, a Democrat elected in November, addressed Self as “Madam Chairman” before beginning to speak.
That set off the exchange that ended the hearing. Rep. Bill Keating of Massachusetts asked Self to repeat himself. The chair did so, referring to McBride as “Mr.”
“Have you no decency?” Keating said. “I’ve come to know you a little bit, but this is not decent.”
Keating said he would not continue the hearing unless Self called McBride by her preferred pronoun.
The chair then adjourned the meeting. He posted to X later that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two 𝑠e𝑥es, male and female.”
It was the latest episode involving McBride, who has repeatedly been on the receiving end of harsh rhetoric from Republican colleagues. She’s been blocked from using women’s restrooms in the House, following a bill sponsored by South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace that would only allow biological women in women’s restrooms. Johnson amended the House rules for women’s bathrooms to be for biological women only.
“He’s a man,” Mace posted on X following the heated exchange between Self and Keating. “Hearing adjourned.”
Also in response to the hearing, Rep. Mary Miller, a Republican from Illinois, who last month addressed McBride as “the gentleman from Delaware” on the House floor — shared an old photo of her on X on Tuesday and wrote that the lawmaker is “a biological man and always will be.”
McBride later expressed disappointment that the chair ended the hearing early.
“I was prepared to move forward with my questions for the Subcommittee on nuclear nonproliferation and US support for Democratic allies in Europe,” McBride said in a statement to POLITICO.
McBride has in the past called the Republican treatment a distraction from important issues such housing, health care and child care. She struck a similar note Tuesday.
“Extremists in the House are hoping people don’t take notice that they voted to slash funding for farmers today,” McBride said.
The lawmaker also posted on X late Tuesday, saying “Now that I have your attention… Our economy is tanking because of Trump’s tariffs.”
