Sarah McBride: If your loved one came out as trans, what kind of world would you want them to enter?

Impact

Sarah McBride wants to move on from talking about bathroom rights for transgender people — but opponents of trans equality won’t let the conversation die.

“It’s really not transgender people who are trying to talk about bathrooms,” McBride, the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, said in an interview. “It’s really the opponents of equality. It’s people who are trying to halt our progress toward a world where every person is treated with dignity, respect and fairness.

McBride, who made history in 2016 as the first out transgender person to speak at the Democratic National Convention, noted that bathrooms are at the center of every battle for civil and human rights.

“Every single battle for civil and human rights has talked about restrooms,” she said. “Because [the anti-trans contingent of America understands] that bathrooms are actually fertile ground to spread that misinformation and to stoke fears, because everyone feels a little bit vulnerable in restrooms. They understand that if you can legislate discrimination in restrooms, that effectively legislates discrimination throughout life.”

To those who feel transgender people should not be guaranteed access to the bathroom that matches their gender identity, McBride has one simple question: If your loved one came out as transgender, what kind of world would you want them to enter?

Watch Sarah McBride’s video op-ed for Mic above. To learn more about her new book, Tomorrow Will Be Different, follow along to her website here.