Anti-trans Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) issued a public apology on Thursday after reportedly mistaking a cisgender woman in a U.S. Capitol restroom for out transgender Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE). She allegedly told the woman, "You shouldn't be here," an anonymous Republican representative told The Daily Beast. Boebert then alerted arch-transphobe Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) about "a guy" in the women's restroom, The Beast wrote.
And her opening line subtly addresses the country's obsession with her trans identity, which she has refused to let get in the way of her legislative duties. "If there is one identity that everyone associates with me, it's that I'm a Delawarean," she jokes, smiling big for the camera. "A proud and true stateriot," a neologism of the words "state" and "patriot."
"It's true," McBride, the first out trans member of Congress, said. "Voters fundamentally ask two questions: Does this candidate like me? And what does this candidate think? If you can't answer the first question, they never get to the second." She paused before adding, "You can't build a diverse working class coalition if people don't feel like you like them. And that means not being assholes to our base either."
