I worry if it’s the best strategy. She decided to take the high road, but members of vilified minority groups don’t really have that as an option.
McBride ran as a very milquetoast centrist Democrat. She ran on helping Delwareans with real kitchen-table issues, she didn’t run on her identity at all. Her whole message is, “look, trans people are just ordinary people. I’m running as an ordinary person. I promise not to make a big stink about being trans. I just want to help my neighbors.” And of course, like any centrist Democrat, she immediately stated she was willing to work across the aisle. She’s centrist Democrat to the core, fetishistic bipartisanship and all.
But here is the problem. Republicans DO NOT WANT and WILL NOT LET a trans person simply be “ordinary.” They want every trans person to have to be a radical bomb thrower. They portray trans people as blue-haired bomb-throwing radicals, and having a very assimilationist trans person just acting like a normal person isn’t something they can tolerate. They NEED her to be a radical. And they are going to force her, one way or another, to speak up for trans rights.
It starts with bathrooms, but it doesn’t end there. The House has a gendered dress code. Are they going to make her wear a men’s suit? Are they going to require that all colleagues refer to her as he/him? Are they going to deadname her on the House floor? What level of humiliation is she willing to put up with before she finally starts speaking up for herself?
Even if she is willing to personally put up with any level of humiliation, is she willing to sacrifice her own constituents for the sake of respectability politics? She is willing to abide by the House Speaker’s ruling, but would she herself be willing to vote for a federal law that prohibits trans people from using restrooms on all federal property? How about any of the hundred other anti-trans laws Republicans would want to pass?
Eventually, if she wants to stick with this, “they go low, we go high” approach, she will end up having to vote for overtly Fascist policies. They will deliberately put her in situations where she has to vote to materially harm herself and other trans people. And at that point, it becomes much harder to actually stand up for your principles.
What argument could she make to oppose a federal nationwide bathroom ban? She already agreed to abide by the principle that trans women should use men’s restrooms. If she tries to object now, she will seem like a hypocrite.
This is ultimately the problem that assimilationists always run into. You can try to be one of the good ones. You can tell everyone that your minority status simply shouldn’t be an issue at all. The problem is that, however much you try, bullies MAKE your minority status an issue. McBride tried to simply take the high road and ignore her trans status entirely, but ultimately that’s unlikely to work. Republicans have already taken advantage of her timidity to humiliate her. And they won’t stop until she is forced one way or another to vocally stand up for trans rights. And unless she is willing to actively vote for her own community’s destruction, at some point, her hand will be forced.
It’s a trap, and she’s seemed to have walked right into it.
I worry if it’s the best strategy. She decided to take the high road, but members of vilified minority groups don’t really have that as an option.
McBride ran as a very milquetoast centrist Democrat. She ran on helping Delwareans with real kitchen-table issues, she didn’t run on her identity at all. Her whole message is, “look, trans people are just ordinary people. I’m running as an ordinary person. I promise not to make a big stink about being trans. I just want to help my neighbors.” And of course, like any centrist Democrat, she immediately stated she was willing to work across the aisle. She’s centrist Democrat to the core, fetishistic bipartisanship and all.
But here is the problem. Republicans DO NOT WANT and WILL NOT LET a trans person simply be “ordinary.” They want every trans person to have to be a radical bomb thrower. They portray trans people as blue-haired bomb-throwing radicals, and having a very assimilationist trans person just acting like a normal person isn’t something they can tolerate. They NEED her to be a radical. And they are going to force her, one way or another, to speak up for trans rights.
It starts with bathrooms, but it doesn’t end there. The House has a gendered dress code. Are they going to make her wear a men’s suit? Are they going to require that all colleagues refer to her as he/him? Are they going to deadname her on the House floor? What level of humiliation is she willing to put up with before she finally starts speaking up for herself?
Even if she is willing to personally put up with any level of humiliation, is she willing to sacrifice her own constituents for the sake of respectability politics? She is willing to abide by the House Speaker’s ruling, but would she herself be willing to vote for a federal law that prohibits trans people from using restrooms on all federal property? How about any of the hundred other anti-trans laws Republicans would want to pass?
Eventually, if she wants to stick with this, “they go low, we go high” approach, she will end up having to vote for overtly Fascist policies. They will deliberately put her in situations where she has to vote to materially harm herself and other trans people. And at that point, it becomes much harder to actually stand up for your principles.
What argument could she make to oppose a federal nationwide bathroom ban? She already agreed to abide by the principle that trans women should use men’s restrooms. If she tries to object now, she will seem like a hypocrite.
This is ultimately the problem that assimilationists always run into. You can try to be one of the good ones. You can tell everyone that your minority status simply shouldn’t be an issue at all. The problem is that, however much you try, bullies MAKE your minority status an issue. McBride tried to simply take the high road and ignore her trans status entirely, but ultimately that’s unlikely to work. Republicans have already taken advantage of her timidity to humiliate her. And they won’t stop until she is forced one way or another to vocally stand up for trans rights. And unless she is willing to actively vote for her own community’s destruction, at some point, her hand will be forced.
It’s a trap, and she’s seemed to have walked right into it.