Sarah McBride Makes History as First Openly Transgender Convention Speaker (Video)

Democrats break a barrier with 25-year-old press secretary’s short speech

Sarah McBride made history Thursday by becoming the first openly transgender speaker at a major political party’s national convention.

McBride, a 25-year-old press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, talked about overcoming discrimination and the importance of equal rights for all. She said the importance of equal rights to decisions about health care became especially clear to her when her husband, a transgender man, was diagnosed with cancer.

It was a historic moment for transgender visibility at a convention that has focused on inclusiveness, and that offers gender-neutral bathrooms.

A conservative-backed North Carolina bill limiting where transgender people can go to the bathroom has become a symbol of transgender discrimination this election year.

McBride’s remarks were short, but direct.

“I believe that tomorrow is going to be different. Tomorrow we can be represented and protected, especially if Hillary Clinton is our president,” she said.

Democrats have mocked the way Donald Trump meticulously enunciated “LGBTQ” in his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination, arguing that he is uncomfortable with equality. Trump has pledged to protect LGBTQ people from terrorists and others who seek to harm them, but activists say the Republican Party platform is more anti-LGBTQ than it has ever been before.

As student body president at American University in Washington, D.C., McBride made headlines when she came out as transgender in the school’s paper. She was also the first out trans woman to work in the White House, interning at the Office of Public Engagement in 2012.

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