On March 11, 2025, an unexpected incident occurred during a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing. At the time, Representative Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, was attending the event. However, the solemn meeting was disrupted when a Texas Republican referred to her as “Mr. McBride,” despite being advised by Democratic Representative Bill Keating to address her correctly. In the past, McBride typically ignored these types of attacks, but this time, she decided to respond.
After hearing the Texas representative refer to her as “Mister,” Sarah McBride retorted, “Thank you, Madame Chair.” Before she could continue, Keating interrupted and instructed Keith Self to reintroduce McBride properly. However, instead of using the correct pronoun, the Texas representative insisted on calling her “Mister,” prompting Keating to declare that he was “out of order.”
Self and Keating exchanged heated words, ultimately leading the Texas representative to abruptly adjourn the meeting. However, the drama didn’t end there, as McBride refused to let the matter go. Later, she released an official response to Self’s actions during the hearing. “I appear to live rent-free in the minds of some of my Republican colleagues,” McBride said.
McBride criticized the attitude of some Republican politicians who focused more on culture war issues than on important matters such as lowering costs for American families. “I wish they would spend a fraction of the time they spend thinking about me figuring out how to make government actually work better,” McBride said. “The Republican Party is obsessed with culture war issues. It is weird and it is bizarre.”
The Delaware representative stated that the American people deserved politicians who are focused on bringing people together to deliver real results. She also condemned the habit of engaging in schoolyard taunts.
Many Redditors who witnessed the incident sided with McBride and criticized the Texas representative’s actions. “Republicans are promoting a culture war to distract us from the money they will be making after they crash the economy and their friends buy it back cheap,” one Redditor said.
Some even claimed that the Texas Republican Party did not care about improving the lives of American citizens. “They only care about terrorizing women, minorities, and ‘woke minds,'” another user remarked.
One user even vowed to do their best to replace Keith Self as Texas’s representative. “I will again do everything I can to get another representative in 2025. I promise, Madam McBride, I will block walk, register voters, attend rallies, and fundraise for a candidate who will treat you with respect,” the user said.
