Sarah McBride on Why the Left Lost on Trans Rights

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Government, News

4.6 • 11K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 95 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump’s actions against transgender Americans have been stunningly wide-ranging. They’ve also been popular. Trump has sought new restrictions on trans people in sports, schools, the military, prisons and medical care, and in government documentation. And a recent poll found that a majority of Americans approve of how Mr. Trump is handling trans issues — far above how he is handling his presidency generally. On trans-related issues, Americans’ opinions have moved right since 2022. What led the trans-rights movement to suffer not just a major electoral loss, but also a sweeping loss of public support? Sarah McBride is a freshman congresswoman from Delaware, where she was previously a state senator. And she is the first openly transgender member of Congress. In our conversation, Representative McBride reckons with the trans rights movement’s shortcomings, what liberalism should look like in a profoundly illiberal time and how to win hearts and minds through a politics of “grace.” It’s the most stirring defense of the practice of politics — with all its compromises and disappointments and frustrations — I’ve heard in some time. This episode contains strong language. Book Recommendations: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin These Truths by Jill Lepore The Final Days by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Annie Galvin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota and Isaac Jones. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show’s production team also includes Marie Cascione, Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith, Marina King, Jan Kobal, Kristin Lin and Jack McCordick. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The So Donald Trump, in his inauguration speech was perfectly clear about what he intended to do.
0:37.0	As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government
0:43.5	that there are only two genders, male and female.
0:50.6	Starting the day of that speech, Trump launched an all-out effort to roll back trans rights,
0:56.2	using every power the federal government had and some that it may not have.
1:00.7	President Trump assigned an executive order which declares the U.S. government will no longer
1:04.8	recognize the concept of gender identity.
1:08.1	President Trump directing the Secretary of Education to create a plan to cut
1:13.0	funding for schools that teach what he calls gender ideology.
1:17.2	This afternoon, President Trump makes a move to ban transgender athletes from competing
1:21.6	in women's sports.
1:22.6	Ban on gender affirming care for transgender inmates in federal prisons.
1:26.6	Ban on transgender troops serving in the military.
1:29.7	These executive orders, many of them, have not actually gone into effect yet.
1:33.8	But when I look across the country, we're already hearing the stories of impact.
1:37.9	In a time when we are struggling to find people to volunteer to do this, we are begging
1:42.6	to be allowed to continue our service, and you're
1:46.0	just going to wash us away. So today I'm not okay. It's a complete dehumanization of transgender
1:51.9	people, years and years and years into who I am, and I'm supposed to out myself. It's about privacy
1:58.4	and dignity for me to be able to change my passport to mail.
2:02.6	A lot of the things Trump is doing in this term have put him on the wrong side of public opinion.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 4 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New York Times Opinion, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of New York Times Opinion and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.