Wilmington transgender activist to take DNC stage
Delaware's imprint on the Democratic National Convention grows Thursday when a Wilmington native becomes the first openly transgender person to speak at a major party convention.
As national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C., Sarah McBride is also a board member of Equality Delaware, an LGBT advocacy organization. She serves on the steering committee of Trans United for Hillary, which has mobilized the transgender community and their allies to rally behind presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
The 25-year-old previously worked on the campaigns for Gov. Jack Markell and the late Attorney General Beau Biden and was the first transgender intern at the White House. She was a vocal proponent of Delaware's Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Act, signed by Markell in 2013.
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McBride came out her junior year of college while serving as student body president of American University in Washington, D.C. She revealed her female identity in a newspaper column that attracted national attention.
She has credited her parents, who still live in west Wilmington, the Delaware Democratic Party, Markell and the Biden family for supporting her transition.
Selected to speak by the Congressional LBGT Equality Caucus, McBride is scheduled to take the podium for three minutes sometime after 5 p.m. today, though the schedule is subject to change. She is expected to follow Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the first openly gay person to be elected to Congress from New York.
Contact Margie Fishman at 302-324-2882, on Twitter @MargieTrende or mfishman@delawareonline.com.