Republican storms out of hearing after deliberately misgendering trans congresswoman: ‘Have you no decency?’
Republican Rep. Keith Self abruptly adjourned a House committee hearing after a Democratic congressman called him out for deliberately misgendering Rep. Sarah McBride, the first transgender member of Congress.
Tuesday’s House Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing is the latest anti-trans attack from Republican lawmakers in the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration and his streak of actions targeting transgender Americans, including an order that flatly denies the existence of trans, nonbinary and intersex people.
After Self addressed McBride as the “Gentleman from Delaware,” she replied: “Thank you, Madame Chair.”
A furious Democratic Rep. Bill Keating then turned to Self in apparent disbelief and asked him to repeat how he addressed a “duly elected representative from the United States of America.”
“I will,” Self said. “The representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride.”
Keating fired back.
“Mr. Chairman, you are out of order,” he said. “Mr. Chairman, have you no decency? I mean, I’ve come to know you a little bit, but this is not decent.”
“We will continue this hearing,” Self replied.
Keating once again cut him off.
“You will not continue it with me unless you introduce a duly elected representative the right way,” he said.
Self then adjourned the hearing.
He defended his actions on X, writing that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” echoing Trump’s executive order eliminating federal recognition of trans people and inaccurately stating there are only two sexes, without accounting for intersex people.
McBride has routinely been the target of anti-trans attacks and discriminatory rhetoric from her colleagues.
Last month, Republican Rep. Mary Miller referred to McBride as the “Gentleman from Delaware” during remarks on the House floor.
