Transgender Trailblazer Sarah McBride Heads to her Debut in Congress, Hoping for a Touch of Grace

A politics of grace

The word "grace" comes up a lot with McBride.

She does everything "with a lot of grace and patience," Lockman said.

"She handled that with far more grace than I would have shown," said Mat Marshall, a friend since high school, referencing McBride's reaction to the congressional bathroom bill.

In her 2018 memoir, McBride wrote a chapter titled "Amazing grace," about "beautiful acts of kindness" she witnessed during the last weeks of Cray's life.

"A lot of times when people go through loss, it can be either faith-crushing or faith-affirming. And for me, it was faith-affirming," she said.

In the room where Cray died, McBride felt God's presence in a tangible way, like a hand on her shoulder – a comforting manifestation of God's love that has never left her.

In the decade since, she often asks herself, "What would Andy do?" And she seeks to follow his example of compassion and "principled grace" toward anti-LGBTQ politicians. "His kindness, his decency has provided for me a North Star."

Some activists have criticized McBride for not fighting back more forcefully against the Capitol bathroom ban. She agrees it's important for transgender people to access public facilities.

"But the people who are talking about bathrooms aren't trans people," she said. "The people who are obsessing about bathrooms are right-wing Republicans who are seeking to stoke division and to distract."

She said she will continue to respond with grace.

"At the end of the day, our ability to have a pluralistic, diverse democracy requires some foundation of kindness and grace," McBride said. "And I believe in that so strongly that even when it's difficult, I will seek to summon it."

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