[THEME MUSIC]
SPEAKER 1: And so now, without
further ado, Sarah McBride.
[APPLAUSE]
SARAH MCBRIDE: Thank you.
Is this on?
Can you hear me?
Thank you so much.
Thank you all for coming
out during your lunch break.
It's wonderful to
be here at Google.
My brother-in-law works
in the New York office,
so it's great to be with family.
My name's Sarah McBride.
I'm the national press
secretary at the Human Rights
Campaign, the nation's
largest LGBTQ civil rights
organization.
I am 27 years old.
I'm a native of Wilmington,
Delaware, a proud graduate
of American University.
And I'm a transgender woman.
It took me 21 years to
muster up the courage
to say those last two words--
transgender woman.
Today, they are among
my proudest identities,
and this afternoon, I can
stand before you as the person
that I am.
But of course, I don't have to
tell you that it hasn't always
been that way.
I remember as a child
lying in my bed at night
praying that I would
wake up the next day
and be myself, to just have
my family be proud of me
and to still be able
to pursue my dreams.
I was a big reader of
history growing up,
and in reading
the history books,
it became abundantly clear
to me that no one quite
like me had ever made it
very far, at least no one who
was out.
And growing up, it was
clear as the sky is blue
that my dreams and my identity
were mutually exclusive.
And so I kept that fact inside.
I told myself that
if I could make
it worthwhile for other people
for me to stay in the closet,
by making a difference
in this world,
by making my family proud,
that those things would somehow
bring me wholeness
and completeness.
I think one of the challenges
we have in the fight for trans
equality that differs in
the fight for gay equality
is that people who
aren't transgender
have a difficult time
understanding what
it feels like to have
a gender identity that
differs from your sex
assigned at birth.
For straight folks, they
understand, generally speaking,
what it's like to
love and to lust,
and there's an entry point into
empathizing with gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and queer individuals
who aren't transgender.
But because they
don't necessarily
have that analogous experience
for the experience of being
in the closet as
a trans person, it
becomes a little
bit more difficult.
And for me, and while
every journey is different
and every experience
is different,
for me, being in the closet,
not being seen and affirmed
as my whole self
by society, felt
like a constant feeling of
homesickness, that unwavering
ache in the pit
of my stomach that
would only go away when I could
be seen and affirmed as myself.
And unlike homesickness
with physical location
which dissipates
with time and getting
used to your new surroundings,
this homesickness
would only increase
with distance.
During my sophomore year in
college after moving down
to DC from my home
state of Delaware,
I was elected president
of the student
body of American University.
And it was through
that experience,
it was through advocating
on a number of issues,
including LGBTQ equality,
that it became clear
that the things I told
myself would make me
feel whole and complete, making
a difference in this world,
that those things
wouldn't actually
fill the void in my life.
And at a certain point,
that homesickness
had become so all encompassing
that my gender identity was
a reality, was a
fact, that I thought
about every single waking
hour of every single day.
I remember sitting in
church on Christmas Eve
night with my parents
listening to the choir sing
and looking up at the
stained glass windows
and just knowing that I couldn't
spend any more time missing
the beauty in this world.
I couldn't spend any more time
watching my life pass by me
without fully living as myself.
And so I didn't waste any time.
I came out to my
parents the next day
on Christmas Day in 2011.
I kind of ruined Christmas.
But you know what?
It was a big present for
them they were not expecting.
And while my parents
struggled with my news-- well,
my parents made clear
that they really
wished this wasn't the path that
we were on, but they loved me
and that they would support
me in every step of the way.
My parents, they
feared rejection
in every sense of the word.
And we sat down and we talked
for the next several days
as they went through
a mourning period.
It sort of felt like
I was dying to them.
So I sat down with them, and
I asked them every question
while simultaneously
listening to their cries
and telling them that there was
nothing I could do about this,
that this was who I am,
and these were the steps
that I needed to take.
And so I answered
every question, mostly
beginning with, are you sure?
And I said, I'm as sure as
of the fact that I love you.
They asked-- my dad, a
progressive, asked me.
He said, I don't
quite understand.
One of the things that I
feel like we've learned
is that gender is
a social construct.
And how do you feel
a gender identity?
How do you have a deeply held
sense of a gender identity
if gender is a social construct?
And I told my dad that, for me,
gender is a lot like language.
Language itself is
a social construct.
Every single word has
been created by humankind,
but language expresses
very real things,
the feeling of happiness,
that sensation is very real.
The word "happiness"
is a social construct.
And just like with
gender, where there
are an infinite number of ways
to express an individual deeply
held sense of your
gender identity,
with language, with
everyday individual feeling,
there is an infinite
number of ways
to express that feeling, whether
it's in the different words you
use, or the different
construction of sentences,
or the non-verbals.
And gender, in many ways,
operates the same way.
And so these
conversations, they could
help my parents
intellectualize this news,
but it didn't solve the
fact that they were scared.
But with the courage
and confidence
that my family gave
me in May of 2012,
during the last day of
my term as student body
president at
American University,
I announced to the
broader campus community
that I was Sarah in an op-ed
in the AU student newspaper.
I was very scared and nervous
about the university's
response.
This was 2012.
It was well before what
"Time" magazine called
the "transgender tipping point."
And I had seen the university
welcome gay, lesbian,
and bisexual students
pretty seamlessly,
but I wasn't quite sure how they
would respond to a transgender
student, let alone a transgender
student body president.
And almost immediately
after posting that note
and then posting the op-ed, the
messages of love and support
began to come in from
students across campus.
And when I was student
body president,
I always said that
our college campuses
should look like
the country we want
to believe in 10 or 15 years.
And what was amazing was
that on that night in 2012,
AU was trying to send a
message to the country, which
is that while we may still
be learning about transgender
identities, and while we may not
totally understand transgender
experiences, this
is how you respond,
with love, with acceptance,
and with support.
One student commented
that the joy on campus
sort of felt like we
had just won a sports
championship, which I don't
know how he would know,
because AU doesn't actually
win sports championships,
but it was just an overwhelming
sense of joy and love.
And it became
abundantly clear to me
that as difficult as it
was for me to come out,
it was relatively easy compared
to the experience of far too
many transgender people across
this country, particularly
transgender folks living
at the intersection
of multiple
marginalized identities.
And so I wanted to make
sure moving forward
that the privileges that
I had in coming out,
of keeping my family, of being
able to continue at my school,
of being safe from violence,
that those would no longer be
a privilege, but rather
a right guaranteed
to every single person, no
matter their sexual orientation
or gender identity, because
it shouldn't be a privilege
to keep your family.
It shouldn't be a privilege
to be able to keep your job
or stay in school because
you come out as transgender.
It shouldn't be a privilege
to be safe from violence.
So I moved back to my
home state of Delaware.
I began working with our state's
equality organization, Equality
Delaware.
Because at that
time, Delaware was
one of a majority of states in
this country that still lacked
clear and explicit protections
from discrimination
for transgender people,
and to this day,
a majority of states and
the federal government
still lack those same explicit
protections for LGBTQ people
more broadly.
And so day in and
day out, we went down
to the state legislature.
And I started out
telling these legislators
about all of the stats
and all of the statistics
and all of the facts.
But as I watched my parents
connect with these legislators,
I realized that my job wasn't
to offer the most cogent case.
My job was to offer the
most compelling case.
And at the end of
the day, stories
have the power to make change.
Vulnerability, I
learned, is oftentimes
our best path toward
justice and equality,
because vulnerability,
it transcends geography.
It transcends ideology.
It transcends race,
religion, gender.
Everyone understands what it
feels like to be vulnerable.
Everyone understands what
it feels like to be othered.
Everyone understands what
it feels like to be scared.
They don't want
that for themself,
and hopefully, they don't
want that for other people.
And so by telling
our stories, it
became abundantly clear
to these legislators
that behind this national
conversation on transgender
rights are, quite simply,
real people, people who love
and laugh, hope and
dream, fear and cry, just
like everyone else.
And when they learn that
simple but radical fact
about transgender people,
they could no longer
look us in the eye and deny
us the equal protection
of the laws they
swore to uphold.
And so in June of 2013, we were
able to convince enough state
legislators to pass the Gender
Identity Nondiscrimination
Act, and fortunately,
that night,
the governor signed it
into law in Delaware.
But like I said, that
isn't the reality
in most states
across this country.
And so I moved back down to
DC to begin working first
at a place called the
Center for American Progress
and now at the Human Rights
Campaign to try to make sure
that the change we've seen
in states like Washington
and states like Delaware,
while there's so much more
work to do, to at least allow
other places in this country
to see the change that we've
seen in places like Washington
and Delaware.
Now, I come to
this fight, and one
of the most important stories
that I share in my book
is the fact that I come to this
fight not just as a transgender
person but also as
someone who's loved
someone who's transgender.
I met my future husband,
Andy, fighting for equality,
and we fell in love.
I admired his extraordinary
courage, optimism, advocacy.
He was a transgender man about
three years older than me.
After we started dating, Andy
was diagnosed with cancer.
And after radiation, chemo, and
surgery, and eventually getting
a clean bill of health,
Andy received the news
that every single
cancer patient fears.
His cancer was back.
It had spread.
And for him, it was terminal.
After Andy found out that he
didn't have much time left,
he asked me to marry him.
And of course, the
answer was yes.
Three weeks after his
terminal diagnosis,
we married on the rooftop
of our apartment building
in front of family and friends.
And then just four days
after that, he passed away.
And I share that story today,
and I share that experience
in this book, because
knowing and loving Andy
left me profoundly changed.
He taught me how to
love and be loved.
He taught me how to
live the values I fight
for at work in my own life.
But more than anything else,
my relationship with Andy
underscored for me that change
cannot come fast enough,
that every day matters when it
comes to building a world where
every person can live
their life to the fullest.
After Andy passed away, I went
through the different stages
of grief.
I went through
sadness and disbelief,
and then I eventually
landed on anger.
I'm not an angry
person by nature.
I find petty anger,
the kind of anger
that you feel when you're
slighted by a friend
or feel under-appreciated to
be kind of a waste of time,
and I'm a pretty lazy person.
But that's not the only
type of anger that exists.
There's also righteous
anger, the kind of anger
that when met with a
mission and hope has,
throughout history,
helped change the world.
Andy had had the
courage to come out
as his authentic self at
a relatively young age.
He had the courage in college to
say to this world that tells us
that who we are is
wrong that he would not
spend one more day hiding.
He was supposed to have 3/4 of
his life as his authentic self,
but because of circumstances
outside of his control,
he had less than a quarter.
Some people have even
less time than that.
Hope can be limitless.
Ideas can always be found.
Inspiration is often endless.
But time, that is the
one resource none of us
can afford to waste.
Dr. King called it "the
fierce urgency of now."
I was angry that society,
that a hateful world, even
with his progressive
family and friends,
had kept that time
and truth away
from Andy, that had kept
him inside of himself
for what ended up being
a majority of his life.
And it made me
more fully realize
that when we ask
transgender people, when
we ask any marginalized person,
whether we ask people living
in poverty or women or
people of color or those
with disabilities, when
we ask anyone to sit back
and allow a slow conversation to
take place before we grant them
opportunity and treat
them with dignity,
we are asking that person
to watch their one life
pass by without the
respect and fairness
that every person deserves.
This is truly a critical moment
in the fight for trans equality
and the fight for
LGBTQ equality.
Over the last year and a
half at the federal level,
we have seen attack
after attack after attack
on the LGBTQ community.
Not to get too political,
but the political
is personal in
this conversation.
And just a few months after
taking office, Donald Trump,
Mike Pence, Betsy
DeVos, and Jeff Sessions
rescinded lifesaving guidance
promoting the protection
of transgender students.
They've appointed
anti-equality extremist people
who've compared being
gay to pedophilia
and called transgender
youth part of Satan's plan.
They've appointed
people like that
to administration positions
and the federal bench.
They've granted a
sweeping license
to discriminate to government
workers, federal contractors,
and even health
care professionals,
against LGBTQ people, religious
minorities, and women.
And of course, in one of
his most shameful moves yet
in a series of erratic tweets--
although every single one
of his tweets is erratic--
he targeted transgender
troops for his hate
by trying to reinstate a ban
on transgender people serving
openly in the military, which
is America's largest employer.
But we also know that
the challenges facing
the trans community
do not begin and end
with the federal administration.
2017 was the deadliest year
on record for the transgender
community.
At least 28 transgender people,
mostly trans women of color,
were killed.
And while that violence has
been on the rise in part
because of politicians
all too eager to appeal
to the darkest undercurrents
of American society,
that hate is not new.
I mentioned that a
majority of states
and the federal government
still lack clear protections
from discrimination in
employment and housing
and public spaces.
And through it all,
LGBTQ people are
as diverse as the
fabric of this nation.
And for those living
at the intersection
of multiple
marginalized identities,
those forced to face not
just transphobia but misogyny
and racism, the stigma, the
prejudice, the discrimination,
and yes, the violence, can
have often deadly consequences.
In 2017, we saw over
130 anti-equality bills
introduced in 30 states.
I'm very proud that here
in Washington, you all
were able to keep an
initiative off the ballot that
would have targeted transgender
people for discrimination.
That sent a powerful
message across this country
that discrimination
will not be tolerated
by voters, by activists, by
people across this state.
But we still have
a lot of challenges
in state legislatures
across the country.
And the two most frequent
types of bills we're seeing,
the first is
legislation that seeks
to utilize religious
freedom as a guise
to license discrimination.
These bills are coming
from the same folks who
are trying to keep people
from an entire religion
from entering this
country, and yet they're
trying to claim that
religious freedom allows
them to have a sphere
without LGBTQ people,
without interaction
with LGBTQ people.
Religious freedom is a
core and fundamental value,
but religious freedom
has always been
a shield against
government persecution
for religious minorities.
It has never been and
should never be a sword
to inflict harm on people.
The second type of
bill we're seeing
are the North Carolina-style
bathroom bills,
legislation that seeks
to forbid transgender
people from accessing restrooms
consistent with their gender
identity.
One of the most
frequent questions I get
is, why do we hear so
much about bathrooms
in this fight for
trans equality?
And the first thing I say is
that, frankly, transgender
people would rather,
for the most part,
not talk about bathrooms.
We're talking about dignity
and equality and fairness
throughout daily life, but
yes, that includes restrooms.
It's opponents of equality that
keep bringing up restrooms,
and they do it for two reasons.
The first is the
knowledge that bathrooms
are politically potent weapons.
Every single battle for civil
and human rights opponents
of equality have
sought to center
in on bathrooms in
the conversation.
We saw it in the fight
around the Civil Rights Act.
We saw it in response to the
push for the Equal Rights
Amendment.
We saw it in the early days
of the gay rights movement.
We saw it in response
to the effort
to pass the Americans
with Disabilities Act,
and today, we're seeing it in
response to the transgender
rights movement.
And they understand that
everyone feels a little bit
vulnerable in restrooms.
Everyone feels a little
bit squeamish in restrooms.
And when you can
stoke fears, when
you can take advantage of
people's ignorance and lack
of understanding of who
transgender people are,
bathrooms become fertile
ground for fear mongering
and for scare tactics.
But it's also a little bit
more insidious than that
why they are focusing
on bathrooms.
The reason is because
they understand
that if they lose on
every other issue,
if they can win on bathrooms,
if they can legislate or allow
for discrimination to
occur in bathrooms,
it becomes the closest thing
to a silver bullet to allowing
discrimination
throughout daily life.
Because if you cannot easily and
safely access a restroom that
makes sense for you, it becomes
much more difficult to go
to school, to go to work, to
leave your house for more than
two or three hours.
And so these efforts are nothing
more than a thinly veiled
attempt to legislate and
push transgender people out
of public life, and we need
our allies to understand that.
We need folks to understand just
how dangerous this agenda is
for transgender people
across this country,
that it's not just on
indignity, which is bad enough.
It's not just allowing
discrimination
in one small area of life.
It is nothing more
than an effort
to push us back into the
shadows and into the closet.
But we've also seen in
response to every single one
of these attacks that
when a politician comes
for us, whether it's Pat
McCrory in North Carolina,
whether it's Donald
Trump in the White House,
we have seen that
each attack unleashes
a national dialogue that
only serves to open hearts
and change minds further.
And in the end,
it ends up sowing
the seeds of the destruction
of the politics of hate
and the policies that
they seek to implement.
We saw it in North Carolina.
We're seeing it now
nationally, which
is that when our
allies stand up,
when diverse LGBTQ voices
are heard, when the business
community speaks
out, we can still
defeat the politics
of fear and division,
the politics of discrimination
and misinformation.
One of the things that I carry
with me in all of the work
that we're doing is advice
that my brother gave me
in the last month
of Andy's life.
My brother, who is a
radiation oncologist
and has watched far too many
people pass away from cancer,
he said to me, this is going
to be incredibly difficult.
But take stock in the
acts of amazing grace
that you see around
you every single day.
And while it's almost
a trite saying,
sort of "find the beauty"
in even that tragedy,
it was a perspective
change that allowed
me to truly find that beauty, to
see that hope only makes sense
in the face of
hardship, and to witness
the little miracles that happen
around me every single day.
And it taught me beyond that
experience that all of us
can bear witness to
acts of amazing grace,
that even in the
darkest moments,
even in the most troubling
times, if we look around
for it, we can see acts
of courage, bravery,
and compassion all around us.
And we're seeing it every
day across this country
in the people marching, and the
people protesting, and folks
showing up in record numbers,
and special elections,
and people standing up against
the politics of hate in ways
that we've never seen before,
and young people in Parkland
turning tragedy into action.
We're seeing that amazing
grace every single day.
And if there's also
one thing we've
seen throughout the
movement for LGBTQ equality
and throughout
every single battle
for civil and human rights
in our country's history,
it's that change
is always possible.
It's not easy.
It doesn't happen inevitably.
But with hard work
and compassion,
it is clear that we can make
more tomorrows better than
today.
And I get to see that
change every single day
in my job with HRC.
When I came out six
years ago as transgender,
it was clear that my
dreams and my identity
were mutually exclusive.
And yet today, I get to meet
countless young transgender
kids across this country, young
transgender people like Stella,
a 13-year-old from just
out of Seattle who,
when I met her last year
and asked her what she wants
to be when she grows up, she
declared without any hesitation
that she will be the first
transgender president.
What once seemed so impossible,
that we could live our truth
and dream big dreams, is now
very real to kids like Stella.
The mere fact that these
young LGBTQ people exist today
demonstrates how far we've come.
But of course, the
fundamental truth
remains that no one
in any community
is totally equal until all of
us from the gay Muslim refugee,
to the queer undocumented
immigrant, to the transgender
woman of color living
right here in Seattle,
until every single
one of us is treated
with dignity and fairness.
But I know that
that day will come,
and when it does, when
our understanding of "we
the people" finally
includes all of us,
a young LGBTQ kid
will grow up and learn
about the struggles for
justice and equality
in their history
books and never have
to know what this progress
felt like to all of us,
because they will never
know anything different.
And that will be because of
advocates and activists who
dreamed of a different world.
It will be because of LGBTQ
people, marginalized people,
speaking out and stepping up.
It will be because our
allies worked with us
to bend the arc of the moral
universe just a little bit more
towards justice.
So I want to thank you
all for having me today.
I'd love to answer
any questions,
and I appreciate you coming
for this conversation.
Thank you all very much.
[APPLAUSE]
AUDIENCE: So there are several
openly trans celebrities,
I guess you can
say, like Renee Cox.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Laverne Cox.
AUDIENCE: Laverne Cox,
sorry, and Caitlyn Jenner.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Very different.
AUDIENCE: Very different,
very different.
Any comment on how they
represent the trans community?
SARAH MCBRIDE: It's
a good question.
I think Laverne Cox is
an incredible person.
I think Laverne Cox is one
of the best spokespeople
that we have for our community,
even though that's not her job.
Her job is to be
an actor, but she
has taken on the
responsibility that
comes with being a
trailblazer with such grace
and such compassion
and such skill
that I am perpetually
thankful for folks
like Laverne Cox, Janet
Mock, so many others.
Caitlyn Jenner is--
I'm very happy for
Caitlyn Jenner.
I think, on the whole,
Caitlyn Jenner's coming out
has been a net positive for
the transgender community,
because I do think that
her coming out offered
an opportunity for conversations
that weren't happening
in far too many places.
One of the best things that
happened that night the Diane
Sawyer interview aired was
that every single local ABC
station also after
that segment had
a story about a local
transgender person, not
Laverne Cox.
Every single one featured
a transgender person
in that community, and so often
we hear from elected officials,
from people, "there
aren't any trans people
that live around here."
And that's just absurd.
It's just not true.
And so in having that
opportunity to elevate
those stories, to demonstrate
the diversity of our community,
and the fact that we
are in every single area
of this country,
was truly profound.
And I think there were
70-year-old people
in Iowa or in Arizona who were
having conversations, perhaps
imperfectly, but were
having conversations,
about trans identities
and trans people
maybe for the first time around
their dinner table that night.
And that's how change happens.
Now, I don't for
one second agree
with Caitlyn Jenner's politics.
And I would love to have a
prolonged debate with her
about that at some point.
But I'm happy for her.
I think, for the
most part, we've
got some exceptional
folks who are serving,
as Laverne Cox says,
as possibility models
for so many young people.
And that's truly incredible that
there is a generation growing
up that's living
authentically they
can turn on their television
and see folks in television,
in business, in politics,
for the first time, not just
as themselves, but
succeeding as themselves.
And that's life-saving.
AUDIENCE: Thank you so much
for being here and telling
your story.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Of course.
AUDIENCE: And so my
sister is transgender,
and she wants to just
be perceived as female
and wants to erase her past.
So I'm wondering, how do
you make sense of your past?
And what's it like being
out, being openly accepting
of your own identity?
SARAH MCBRIDE: So
that's a great question.
I think one of the most
dangerous narratives
I think we have in
the LGBTQ community
is that everyone has to be out.
Everyone has to be out.
And I think that that
is an unfair burden
to place on an already
marginalized community,
I think, particularly for
transgender people, when,
in existing in this
world, if people
know they are transgender,
it can oftentimes
be an asterisk on their gender.
And they know they can't be
fully seen as themselves,
which then causes pain.
I don't want to
cause anyone pain,
and I don't want to
have to go about--
one of the things that
Andy always taught me,
and we actually had
this conversation
around outing anti-equality
politicians who were closeted.
And Andy said to
me, one, we're not
going to open anyone's
heart by outing people.
But I'm fighting for a world
where every person can live
their gender identity and
sexual orientation the way
they need to, and that's
a principle that I'm not
willing to sacrifice.
So I'm not willing to
universalize this notion
that everyone has to be out
in pursuit of a principle that
contradicts that tactic.
And if my principle
that I'm fighting for
is not a first
principle that I'm not
willing to break, then what is?
So I think we have to
get past this place
where everyone has to be out.
Sharing one's story can
be incredibly empowering.
I want to build a
world where people
can be seen as trans people
and be seen fully as the gender
identity that they are.
One of the things
that I always say
is people write
"transwoman" as one word.
And I say, no, it's two words.
My identity as a woman, and
my identity as a trans person,
they complement each other.
They interact with
each other, but they
don't negate one another.
They don't change the other
fact about one another.
I'm proud of my
transgender identity.
I'm proud of the journey
that I've been on.
I think being transgender
has made me a stronger,
more compassionate person.
I think being
transgender helped lead
me to find the love of my life,
and I think being transgender
has brought me into a
community that is beautiful
and part of the rich diversity
of this country and this world.
And so there are
going to be people,
for me, who aren't willing
to see me as a woman,
because I'm also out as trans,
and I'm fortunate to have,
I think, privileges
that shield me
from the consequences of
those stigmas and biases.
It doesn't bother me either.
At the end of the day, it
doesn't cause me pain any more.
It maybe used to.
But for those who
would experience pain,
I would never want
to say to them, well,
you have to go through even
more for a political end.
Even if that political
end is a moral imperative,
I'm not willing to require
someone to live their life,
to watch their life pass
by, or to experience
more pain in their one
life for this movement.
There are so many other ways
that we can achieve equality.
So those are sort of my
individual feelings about me
being out, but also my
feelings more broadly
about not requiring other
people who are LGBTQ to be out.
AUDIENCE: So that the
Human Rights Campaign
does not have the best track
record for trans advocacy.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Mhm.
AUDIENCE: For example, there
is the scorecard for lots
of large companies
that will mark 100%,
"this company is great
for LGBTQ folks,"
and their medical insurance will
have trans exclusion clauses.
SARAH MCBRIDE:
They can't get 100
if they have exclusion clauses.
That has changed.
AUDIENCE: That has changed, OK.
SARAH MCBRIDE:
Now-- sorry, if you
want to finish your question,
and I can respond to all of it.
AUDIENCE: Right.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Sorry.
AUDIENCE: I was just asking
that now that you're with HRC,
what positive changes have
you seen in that organization?
SARAH MCBRIDE: So
that's a great question.
I appreciate you
asking that question.
So the first, on the
question of the CEI,
there is a
requirement in the CEI
that companies don't have
exclusions, that companies have
inclusive health insurance.
Now, that doesn't always
mean that every single,
unfortunately,
health insurance plan
is going to cover the full
range of services and procedures
that transgender people need.
And that's an
ongoing conversation
that we continue to work
with insurance providers
on ensuring that
their standards are
truly inclusive of the medical
needs of the transgender
community.
But the CEI does require trans
inclusive health benefits,
and actually, we've seen, in the
several years since that aspect
has been included in CEI,
and because of so many people
within companies articulating
and advocating for change,
but we've seen that the
percentage of major companies
that are scored by the
CEI that have trans
inclusive health insurance,
or don't have exclusions
at the very least, has
gone from single digits
percentage wise to
60-something percent.
So on that front,
the CEI, I think,
is always evolving and
always constantly looking
at what are best practices,
and best practices, rightfully,
are always evolving and
changing and improving.
But on the specific question
of health insurance,
we do require that.
One of the major
elements of scoring
is that there aren't exclusions.
More broadly-- so
I'll be upfront
about this history
for folks that
don't have quite
the same context.
In 2007, the Human
Rights Campaign
continued to support the
Employment Nondiscrimination
Act even after gender
identity was stripped out
by Democrats in the
House of Representatives.
And that was a decision that
was wrong, plain and simple.
I don't think there's anyone
at the organization that would
make that same decision twice.
The organization's new
leadership, Chad Griffin,
has apologized for that.
We have a principle
that is unbreakable
that we will never support
legislation that is not
inclusive of gender identity.
And one of the
things that I truly
appreciate about my
colleagues at HRC
is they understand that
that was a decision that
left real scars for
a lot of people,
and that changes in
perceptions and people healing
from that pain and that
wound, that healing
doesn't happen overnight.
That takes time.
And one of the
things that I really
value about my colleagues, both
trans and cis-- "cis gender"
is a term for people
who aren't transgender--
is that they understand
that even though there is
a ton of great work happening
at the Human Rights Campaign
today on trans issues,
that it's going to require
that sustained investment before
people are willing to forgive,
and frankly, they'll
never forget,
that those scars are
deep, and they're lasting.
What are some of
the things in some
of the work that I see right
now in the Human Rights Campaign
on trans issues?
First, I wouldn't go
to an organization
that I wasn't totally
positive was 150% behind,
passionate about,
and centering trans
equality work in their work.
Before I was on staff
at HRC, I talked
about the Gender Identity
Nondiscrimination bill
in Delaware.
And I can tell you without
any question in my mind
as the person who helped lead
that effort in Delaware that we
would have not passed
that bill without HRC.
HRC came in with resources.
They came in with staff.
They came in with expertise.
They came in with skill.
They came in with
mobilization efforts
that truly allowed us to
pass both marriage equality
and gender identity protections
within a month of each other,
which is historic.
And I saw that passion.
I saw that skill.
I saw that commitment from
the staff, from Chad Griffin
on down.
And I have seen firsthand and
been the beneficiary firsthand
of that work.
Every organization is
always on a path for growth.
No organization is perfect.
There's always more
that can be done.
But in terms of
the progress I've
seen over the last
several years,
trans work is probably 60% to
70% of our work at this point.
Trans work is not just at
the center of the movement,
but it's at the center of the
work that we do every day.
We put an unprecedented amount
of staff, volunteers, and money
into the state of North
Carolina to specifically defeat
Pat McCrory after HB2, because
we understood that defeating
Pat McCrory would send a
really important message
to anti-equality politicians
that if you come for us,
we're going to come for you,
not just the trans community,
but the LGBTQ community
and our allies
will come for you
on Election Day.
I see the amazing
trans work that's
happening in our
foundation programs, which
is working to ensure that our
schools are inclusive of trans
and gender nonconforming and
non-binary and gender-expansive
students, making sure that
our hospitals are becoming
a bit more safer.
As someone who's been a
caregiver and a patient
in a hospital as
a trans person, I
know just how important
that is and how much
work there remains to be done.
So we have a team that's
working specifically
on expanding hospital safety and
access, and a lot of their work
is trans focused.
At the state level--
for instance, there was a
battle in Pennsylvania--
we removed our support for
a bill, a nondiscrimination
bill, that still
included gender identity,
but they stripped out
public accommodations.
And we knew that stripping
out public accommodations
would disproportionately harm
the transgender community,
and so we said we can no
longer support this bill.
And the bill died in
part because of us
and other organizations saying,
this is a first principle.
Any legislation that
disproportionately does not
protect the trans community is
legislation we can't support.
We're hiring more
trans staffers.
I think the diversity
on our staff,
both in terms of gender
identity and trans identities,
but also in terms of race and
religion, immigration status,
all of these
different identities
that make up a diverse
workforce, that we're
consistently trying to
make sure that we're hiring
more diverse staff, more
trans and gender nonconforming
people, not just in
entry level positions,
but also in senior leadership
positions and public positions
and communications and the
foundation and our legal team.
So I've seen a lot of progress.
I'm really passionate about
the work that we're doing
and the fact that I didn't
join an organization because I
wanted to come in and try to
make it start doing trans work.
I came into this organization
because I saw firsthand
just how much they were doing
and just how skillfully they
were doing it.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Thank you.
AUDIENCE: First of all,
thank you so, so much.
SARAH MCBRIDE: I have had
a cough for four weeks,
so I apologize.
AUDIENCE: So my
question is I know
and I know of a lot of people
whose opinions on trans people
are pretty uninformed by actual
interactions with or hearing
the stories of trans people
that are often very sort
of biological essentialist
or very rooted
in data gender theory.
And I was wondering
how you interact
with people like that,
people who may not even
think that they know any
trans people, without taking
the whole burden on
yourself to try to humanize
yourself or make this about--
to try to convince them
that trans people are
real and people.
SARAH MCBRIDE: So
that's a great question.
I think in terms of
how do I deal with it,
I feel a particular
responsibility
to deal with that.
And I feel a particular
responsibility in the fact
that this is my job
to be willing to bear
a bit more of that burden
of humanizing and educating.
I think there are
a couple of things.
One, there are
certain things that I
am firm about that I'm
not going to talk about.
My personal medical
history is just that.
It's personal.
And I am pretty
clear, particularly
if a reporter asks me about
that, that I politely push back
and just say, I'm sorry.
I'm not comfortable
talking about that,
certainly not on the record.
There are some people
who aren't going
to change their mind either
ever or in one sitting,
and I think understanding that
and sort of freeing myself
from that responsibility of
feeling like if I don't change
everyone from A to Z in one
sitting then I've failed,
or I'm not doing a good job,
I think that's been freeing
in many ways.
My approach is this.
I know that there's a lot
of ignorance out there.
I want allies to
educate themselves,
but I understand that it's
also difficult to not know
what you don't know.
And so people are
going to make mistakes.
People are going to come in
with knowledge gaps that exist.
If you're coming to me
with a genuine interest,
a genuine desire to understand,
if there's a willingness
to grow, if there's
a willingness
to not get defensive
if you make a mistake
and I politely correct you, then
I'll sit it, and I will engage.
If there's no
willingness, then they
can come back to
me when they maybe
grow the heart that they're
lacking in that moment.
And I think for the
most part, most people
are in that former category.
I think most people are
compassionate people.
Most people are
empathetic people
that when confronted with a
human being in front of them,
when confronted with a story,
their hearts will be opened.
Their minds will be
changed, and their hearts
will be opened at
least a little bit.
And so I think
that, well, I don't
need to spend my time with
someone who's doing this just
to troll or just to hurt, that
the vast majority of people
I can engage with
because they are coming
to me with a genuine willingness
to have their empathy tapped.
And I think that at the end
of the day, if we do that,
if we allow
ourselves to do that,
and if we allow people to make
mistakes, but offer people
the willingness to grow and
the opportunity to grow,
that that will make progress.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Hello.
AUDIENCE: I'm also from
Wilmington Delaware,
and I'm also a trans woman.
And we have family
connections actually.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Wait, really?
AUDIENCE: People that
I grew up with that
know your family, yeah.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Great.
Can I ask who?
AUDIENCE: Yeah, so your
brother is best friends
with my cousin, Phillip.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Lamplough.
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Oh, my god.
Delaware is truly so small.
AUDIENCE: Delaware
is really small.
Every time you meet
people from Delaware,
you're like, oh, my god.
Do you remember Charcoal Pit?
SARAH MCBRIDE: Yeah,
we've either dated, mated,
or are related.
AUDIENCE: Exactly, exactly.
So I was in trans activism here.
I'm a founder of Gender Justice
League for Washington State.
SARAH MCBRIDE: I love
Gender Justice League.
AUDIENCE: Dope.
We love you.
SARAH MCBRIDE:
Y'all are amazing.
AUDIENCE: And I was part of the
effort in front of the Senate
to get the bathroom bill shut
down a couple of years ago.
And I have since
stopped doing activism
because it's exhausting
and draining,
and it will eat your life.
And my masochism has led me
to the dregs of the internet
to get my anger out.
And so I see a lot of direct
misinformation campaigns,
like intentional, structured,
toxification of communities.
I see things like PragerU
and Jordan Peterson
and these people that
come out with this sort
of low-level, soft-sell
disinformation
for the hard right.
And I wonder how
aware/concerned are
people at places
like the HRC, which
I know you guys have legislation
as sort of your main deal.
And when it comes to
social communities
on the internet like Reddit
or YouTube comments sections,
where do you guys feel
like the responsibility
lies to make sure that
these platforms aren't used
specifically to spread
this disinformation
and to sort of weaponize awful?
SARAH MCBRIDE: Yeah.
So to the first question
of how aware and concerned
are we-- very aware and
actively engaged on the issue.
One of the things that
we have tried to do
is there are a handful of--
well, the vast majority
of the medical community
and scientific community
affirm the reality
of transgender
people and the need
to have access to affirming
health care and affirm
transgender identities,
the validity of transgender
identities.
There are a handful--
AUDIENCE: There's always
Paul McHugh just waiting
in the background.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Right.
Paul McHugh is a great example.
We have done a lot to try to
engage, educate the media,
to get statements of
opposition from their research
institutions, if they're
affiliated with research
institutions, articulating
that these positions are not
the positions of
this institution,
that this institution--
Johns Hopkins is a great example
with McHugh as a hospital
too that my husband went
to as a cancer patient.
And every single time
we got a new doctor
or nurse we would
wonder, is this person
familiar with Paul McHugh?
Are they an acolyte
of Paul McHugh?
And will that change the
way they interact with Andy
and me because of that?
And so we've actually
spent the last two years
trying to engage
with Johns Hopkins
to get them to make a clear,
affirmative statement that Paul
McHugh does not represent
the positions of the hospital
and the institution.
Because those are
important statements
to be able to combat the
misinformation that Paul
McHugh, who's not a gender
or sexuality specialist,
but who has these personal
biases that he writes about
in non-scientific journals,
but with a "doctor" in front
of his name that makes it
seem like he has credibility
on the issue, to make sure that
we get these statements so we
can have them ready in courts
if he's ever testifying,
in legislatures if he's ever
testifying, and to again,
educate the media about why this
person is not a credible person
to be interviewing
on trans identities.
So we're very aware of that.
There's ongoing
efforts depending--
Bailey, I think--
AUDIENCE: J. Michael
Bailey, yeah.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Yeah.
There's a whole host--
there's a wonderful person
named Brynn Tannehill
who does a lot of writing.
AUDIENCE: Yeah, I know Brynn.
SARAH MCBRIDE: Brynn's
great, and we work actively
with Brynn tracking these
folks and making sure
that we're going in and engaging
with their institutions.
The second question
of the responsibility
of platforms to make sure that
social media and the internet
is a force for good
as opposed to a force
that it elects the 45th
president of the United States
is, I think, one of the
most significant questions
before us.
How do we leverage changing
and advancing technologies
for good and not for ill?
How do we address
the reality also
that in this individualized
media society,
half of the country is truly
not even hearing the other half?
How do we bridge that divide,
whether it's in cable news,
whether it's on
Facebook, whether it's
on social media,
where people are
going into these echo chambers?
And if you're going into
an echo chamber of hate,
it emboldens your hate.
I don't have a good answer.
That's, honestly,
above my pay grade
in terms of what
are the mechanisms
that these individual
platforms should utilize
or what steps should
they take to address it.
I do think they have a
moral obligation, a business
obligation, and a
practical obligation
to make sure that they are truly
rooting out hate speech when
it occurs and
violent speech when
it occurs on their platforms.
If they have these
policies, they
need to actually abide by them.
I think they need to make
sure that if they don't
have those policies,
they are adopting
those policies, for one.
I think one of the
exciting things that we're
seeing right now is that the
generation just behind me--
I'm a millennial-- the
generation that are
digital natives are doing it.
I don't think they know
how they're doing it,
but I think they're
already doing it
where they're bridging
that divide that
exists across media, and
they're utilizing social media
for good.
And I think that's going to
be the generation that truly
figures out how we
solve what feels almost
like an unsolvable
problem at this point.
I know the obligations
exist, but I
don't have answers for them.
And I would certainly
charge anyone
who's working in tech
to actively grapple
with these questions,
to actively grapple
with the policies you have
and the practices that
are occurring, because I truly
think it's probably the biggest
question we face, both the
echoing of hate on social media
that emboldens
hate and also this
divide that no longer allows us
to operate from the same fact
patterns and the
same conversations
and keep us from talking
with one another.
So it's a great question.
I don't have a good answer,
but I'm passionate about.
AUDIENCE: No, that's fine.
Thank you.
SARAH MCBRIDE: And I think
we need to address it.
SPEAKER 1: All right, great.
Thank you so much,
Sarah, for coming today--
SARAH MCBRIDE:
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 1: --and sharing
your story with us.
We appreciate it.
[APPLAUSE]
