A Congressional hearing abruptly ended after a Republican lawmaker got called out for misgendering a trans Congresswoman.
Politics has always been a nasty business. But sometimes it completely abandons all hints of decency. You may have seen a heated exchange at a recent Congressional hearing over the chairman’s intentional misgendering of a trans Congresswoman.
Misgendering means using the incorrect gender when referring to a person.
There are times when misgendering occurs without any ill will. For example, in the news business, when a coroner notifies the media about the identity of a person who has died, the coroner may not be aware of the gender the departed identifies as. So a coroner might go with the biological sex characteristics before him when he declares the person male or female.
But there are definitely times when misgendering is intentional. This hearing, as described in The Guardian, was an example.
In a foreign affairs hearing, panel chair Keith Self, a Republican from Texas, opened the floor to Congresswoman Sarah McBride, a Democrat and the first openly transgender member of Congress, who represents Delaware.
Self referred to her as “Mr. McBride.”
McBride was apparently content to gloss over the incident with one satirical response, “Thank you, Madam Chair.”
But McBride’s colleague, fellow Democrat Bill Keating of Massachusetts, spoke right up.
“Mr Chairman, could you repeat your instruction again, please?” Keating asked Self. “Would you repeat what you just said, when you introduced the duly elected representative from the United States of America. Please!”
“I will,” Self said. “The representative from Delaware, Mr McBride.”
“Mr Chairman, you are out of order. Mr Chairman, have you no decency? I mean, I’ve come to know you a little bit, but this is not decent,” Keating admonished.
“We will continue this hearing,” Self answered.
“You will not continue it with me, unless you introduce a duly elected representative the right way,” Keating said.
At that point, Self banged the gavel and adjourned the meeting.
Why is simple decency so impossible these days?
Look, I’m the first to admit that I don’t fully understand transgender. I was born male and I identify as male. Some might say I’m lucky in that.
But as a male, I can’t even fully imagine what it’d be like to be born a female who identifies as female. I just don’t have that experience.
So it’s even harder for me to fully wrap my head around being born one gender but identifying as the opposite. I get the concept. I understand what it means. But I can’t fully put myself in that person’s place.
The biggest thing I struggle to comprehend is the person who doesn’t identify as either gender or who identifies as both. From a grammar standpoint, the “singular they” has the potential to cause a great deal of confusion, particularly in the written word. Beyond the linguistic side, it can be very difficult to fully imagine what it’s like to feel you don’t fully fit either mold completely.
There’s no real way for someone who isn’t transgender to understand it.
The thing is, I don’t have to fully understand it to at least show someone who is transgender basic respect. I don’t have to know what it’s like to be a person of color to be respectful to a person of color. Likewise, I don’t have to belong to a different religion to be respectful to a person whose beliefs are different from mine. I don’t to switch sexual orientations to show respect to someone of a different orientation than my own.
Showing basic respect is a choice
Maybe it’s unreasonable to expect politicians to show each other respect. Most of them barely show their constituents very much of it these days.
But to the extent that politicians are supposed to represent the citizens they serve, we should be able to at least expect better behavior from the ones who represent us.
Outside of politics, we should at least be able to respect each other enough to ditch the pettiness. There’s more than enough of that already.
There are people who claim respect should be earned. They’re wrong.
Trust is earned. Everyone is due basic respect. That’s not unreasonable, whether you’re talking about a friend, a stranger, a neighbor, a co-worker or even a trans Congresswoman.
We can all do so much better than this.
