House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), the second highest-ranking Democrat in the lower chamber, has selected newly seated freshman U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) to serve as her deputy whip for policy.

The high profile role will involve “strategic, long-term planning, and coordination on policy,” according to a press release from McBride’s office announcing the appointment.

“My number one priority in Congress is helping to lower costs facing Delawareans and American families,” the congresswoman said. “We can do this by guaranteeing paid family and medical leave, lowering the cost of childcare and restoring the child tax credit.”

McBride added, “I look forward to working alongside my Democratic colleagues to prioritize common sense solutions to making it more affordable to raise a family. I’m grateful to Democratic Whip Katherine Clark for this opportunity and for her steadfast leadership and mentorship.”

In a statement on X, she said, “I’m thrilled to be named a deputy whip for Policy in the 119th Congress, advising House Democratic Leadership on policy priorities and plans for our caucus. Just as I was in the state Senate, I remain focused on lowering the cost of housing, health care, child care, and helping families make it through the inevitable challenges of life.”

Last week, McBride became the first freshman Democrat to introduce a bill, together with U.S. Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.), which targets scams by companies that take large fees from consumers in exchange for “empty promises” to improve their credit scores.

When serving in the Delaware state senate, McBride sponsored the Healthy Delaware Families Act, which was signed into law in 2022 and allows Delawareans to take a 12-week paid family or medical leave, receiving up to 80 percent of their current wages.

“Care infrastructure” will remain a major focus for the congresswoman’s work moving forward, along with policies in areas like investment in green technologies, Medicare reforms, expanding access to quality health care including reproductive care, empowering labor unions, gun violence prevention, and more.

The congresswoman worked on Beau Biden’s campaign for Delaware attorney general in 2010, and in the years since has maintained a close personal relationship with President Joe Biden and the Biden family. (Beau, the president’s eldest son, died of glioblastoma in 2015.)

House Republicans escalate their transphobic attacks against McBride

McBride is transgender, becoming the first trans speaker to address a major party convention in 2016, the trans state senator with her first election to public office in 2020, and the first trans member of Congress with her election to represent Delaware’s at-large congressional district in 2024.

While she has not shied away from acknowledging the significance of her position as the first and the only voice in Congress representing her community, McBride has repeatedly emphasized that she did not run for office to be — as a recent profile in the Washington Post put it — “a symbol, or a spokesperson, or the first anything.”

Her focus, rather, is on delivering results for her constituents in Delaware.

“I’m here to be a serious person,” she told the Post. “And if there are people here who don’t want to be serious, then they can answer to their constituents.”

McBride’s arrival in Washington comes as national Republicans have made anti-trans policy and legislation a greater priority than ever before, while transphobia and the use of transphobic hate speech by conservative elected leaders escalates into dangerous territory.

Responding to the news of McBride’s appointment to lead policy development for her party under the Democratic whip, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said, in a post on X, “Democrats just put a mentally ill congressman, who parades himself as a congresswoman to thrill his disturbing sexual fetishes, in charge of democrat policies.”

The bigoted attacks by House Republicans began before the first transgender member of Congress was even seated, from deliberate misgendering and the use of her birth name to the proposal barring trans women from women’s restrooms in the Capitol building, which was drafted by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) in direct response to McBride’s election and subsequently enacted by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

Before she was elected, McBride sought to mitigate the risk that her use of public women’s bathrooms on the Hill might draw unwanted attention or interest, privately making arrangements with Democratic leadership to instead use facilities in the Capitol suites reserved for Clark and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (R-N.Y.). 

Mace introduced the bathroom ban on Nov. 19 and, in the days and weeks since, availed herself of every chance to discuss the matter with Capitol Hill reporters, on cable news programs, and on her X account — where, according to Newsweek, the congresswoman had published 326 posts or replies about the resolution within just the first 72 hours.

Last month, Mace filmed herself reading the Miranda warning with a megaphone to activists who were arrested for staging a demonstration against her bathroom rule outside Johnson’s office, later sharing the video on X mocking the protestors with an anti-trans slur.

McBride declined to comment or engage beyond saying that she would comply with the policy. In response to criticism that she ought to have pushed back more forcefully, she told NBC News, “The point of this bathroom ban was to bait me into a fight, was to diminish my capacity to be an effective member of Congress by turning me into a caricature.”

“I refuse to give them that opportunity or that response that they seek,” McBride said, adding that allowing herself to be baited would “not do the trans community any good” either. “That is what they want. There is power in not giving people what they want.”

This week, a video from 2019 in which McBride is seen reading to students in a classroom and leading a discussion about the importance of respecting their gender diverse peers was circulated on X by the anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok.

Mace responded in a post that began by proclaiming “she is a he” and asserted without evidence that McBride “appears to be grooming young children” for sexual abuse, while Greene falsely accused her Democratic colleague of being a “groomer” and “child predator.”

As an anti-trans/anti-LGBTQ moral panic has taken hold in the U.S. and escalated over the past few years, conservatives including several U.S. lawmakers have revived the dangerous and baseless lie that trans people and gay people are inclined toward pedophilia or child sexual abuse or “grooming,” which refers to the practice of priming a victim, usually a minor, for sexual abuse or exploitation.

Experts, including organizations like the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, say this rhetoric can put children at greater risk by stealing the focus away from efforts to identify actual cases of abuse while also diminishing the experiences of survivors.

This specific form of transphobic and homophobic hate speech was more common in the 1970s and 80s but until recently was considered out of bounds for mainstream political discourse.

McBride so far has not addressed the posts from Mace and Greene. Her office did not respond to a request for comment on the matter last week.

The Arlington County Fire Department announced on Jan. 16 that an Arlington man has been arrested on three counts of arson for at least three fires set at restaurants on the same block on South 23rd Street, including Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant, which is a gay establishment.

A statement released by the fire department says a warrant for the arrest of Timothy Clark Pollock was issued on Jan. 15 and that Clark was apprehended by Alexandria police on Jan. 16 at approximately 6:54 a.m. It says he was transferred into the custody of fire marshals and the Arlington Police Department.

Fire department officials have said the fires that Pollock allegedly set took place between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 9, on the 500 block of South 23rd Street in the Crystal City section of Arlington.

Freddie Lutz, owner of Freddie’s, said the front door of his establishment was set on fire with what appeared to be a flammable liquid such as lighter fluid. The door was partially blackened by the fire, but the restaurant itself did not catch fire, Lutz said.

Fire department officials said the other two nearby establishments hit by small fires around that same time were the Crystal City Sports Pub and McNamara’s Pub and Restaurant.

Lutz told the Washington Blade that the fire at Freddie’s took place the day before and the day after Freddie’s received a threatening phone call from what sounded like the same unidentified male caller.

“He said I’m going to fuck you up and I’m going to fuck the women up,” Lutz said the person told Freddie’s manager, who answered the two calls.

Lutz speculated that the caller could have been the same person who started the fire at Freddie’s and possibly the other two restaurants.

The short statement by the Arlington County Fire Department announcing the arrest did not say whether fire and police investigators have determined a possible motive for the fires. The statement says Pollock was being held without bond and that he is “also facing additional charges for unrelated crimes, which remain under investigation.”

The online news Arlington news publication AR Now reports that a Facebook account associated with Timothy C. Pollock includes a photo from inside Freddie’s posted on Facebook on Dec. 21.

Lutz confirmed for the Blade the photo clearly one that was taken inside Freddie’s showing Christmas decorations, leading Lutz to believe that Pollock has been inside Freddie’s at least once if not more than once.

Photos of Timothy C. Pollock on that person’s Facebook page appear to be the same Pollock as that captured in the mug shot photo of Pollock released by the Arlington County Fire Department on Jan. 16.

Delaware Gov. Bethany Hall-Long on Jan. 16 signed and issued an executive order creating a Delaware State LGBTQ+ Commission that she said will hold public forums for the exchange of ideas on the needs of the state’s diverse LGBTQ community.

“The nine-member commission will serve to strengthen ties between the government and LGBTQ+ organizations,” a statement released by the governor’s office says.

The statement adds that the new commission will “help remove barriers to societal participation for LGBTQ+ people and improve the delivery of services to the community in Delaware to areas such as employment, equality, education, and mental health.”

It says that members of the commission will be appointed by the governor and serve without monetary compensation for a three-year term.

According to the statement, the commission members “will represent different facets of the LGBTQ+ community, taking into account age, race, gender, identity, background, life experiences and other factors, and reflect the geographic diversity of the state.”

Hall-Long’s executive order creating the new commission came at a time when she is serving in effect as interim governor for a period of just two weeks. As lieutenant governor, she became governor on Jan. 7 when outgoing Gov. John Carney resigned to take office in his newly elected position of mayor of Wilmington.

Carney, who served two terms as governor, could not run again for that position under Delaware’s term limit law. Democrat Matt Myer won the governor’s election in November and will be sworn in as Delaware’s next governor on Jan. 21, when Hall-Long will step down.

Myer was expected to appoint the commission members in the weeks following his assumption of gubernatorial duties.

“Ultimately, the commission will advise the governor, members of the governor’s Cabinet, members of the General Assembly, and other policymakers on the effect of agency policies, procedures, practices, laws, and administrative rules on the unique challenges and needs of LGBTQ+ people,”  the statement released by Hall-Long’s office says.

“It is truly an honor to bring this commission to fruition, and I am very excited to see the positive changes the commission will make in the lives of our LGBTQ+ neighbors,” Hall-Long said in the statement.

David Mariner, executive director of Sussex Pride, an LGBTQ advocacy group based in Delaware’s Sussex County, which includes Rehoboth Beach, praised the new executive order as an important step in advancing LGBTQ equality.

“It is my hope that through this commission, we can address the critical issues facing LGBTQ Delawareans,” Mariner said in his own statement.

“This includes developing an LGBTQ health report with a tangible roadmap to health equity, increasing collaboration and communication on hate crimes and hate-related activities, and ensuring that nondiscrimination protections, guaranteed by law, are a reality for all of our residents,” he said.

The statement announcing the LGBTQ+ Commission and the full text of the executive order can be accessed here.