PHILADELPHIA — The Democratic National Convention is set to feature its first-ever “transgender” speaker this Thursday as a man who identifies as a woman is scheduled to take the stage in support of Hillary Clinton.
Tim McBride, who goes by the name Sarah, serves as the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign and is also a volunteer on the steering committee of Trans United for Hillary.
McBride explained in 2012 that he felt he was transgender as a child, but buried his struggle with his identity in his love for politics.
“I told myself that if I could make ‘Tim’ worthwhile for other people by changing the world, that being ‘Tim’ would have been worthwhile,” he wrote in an open letter published by the outlets The Eagle and Delaware Liberal. “I also thought that, on a superficial level, the perks and privileges of being an elected official would bring me some level of happiness that I couldn’t otherwise achieve.”
But McBride said that matters came to a head while serving as student body president.
“By mid-fall, it had gotten to the point where I was living in my own head. With everything I did, from the mundane to the exciting, the only way I was able to enjoy it was if I re-imagined doing it as a girl,” he outlined. “I wasn’t really living anymore. My existence was experienced through imagination.”
Therefore, in his quest to find his “true self,” McBride began present himself as a woman and asked to be referred to under his chosen name, Sarah.
He went on to intern at the White House and also worked at the Center for American Progress. The now 25-year-old, who lives in Washington, D.C., currently serves as the press secretary for the homosexual and transgender advocacy group Human Rights Campaign.
According to reports, the congressional “LGBT caucus” decided to include a transgender speaker at the DNC this year, and McBride was consequently considered as a speaker.
“I’m honored for this opportunity to share my story and to be the first transgender person to speak at a major party convention,” he said in a statement. “I’m so proud to stand with the LGBT Caucus and speak out in support of Hillary Clinton, because we know she stands with us.”
Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin is also expected to speak Thursday evening. The group endorsed Clinton in January, and notes in a press release that a record 27 delegates at this week’s convention identify as transgender.
As previously reported, last week’s Republican National Convention featured PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who declared to those gathered that he is “proud to be gay.”
“Of course, every American has a unique identity,” Thiel said. “I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American.”
His declaration was met with cheers and chants of “USA.”
Some have consequently expressed disappointment in the Republican Party and its increasing similarity to the Democratic Party.
Deuteronomy 22:5 reads, “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.”