Newly-elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), the first openly transgender person elected to serve in the United States Congress, along with newly-elected Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA), right, and Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-MD), left, before the official new member photo was taken on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Friday, Nov. 15 in Washington, DC.
The 119th Congress officially began on January 3 and included among the new members are three history-making LGBTQ+ legislators: Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA), and Rep. Julie Johnson (D-TX).
McBride, the first out transgender member of Congress, received a slew of support from the Democratic Party and national LGBTQ+ rights organizations. A major part of her platform was protecting transgender rights in the United States.
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At only 34, McBride has already worked for the Human Rights Campaign and interned in the Obama-Biden White House. She was the first trans person to speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. She became the first trans person elected to a state senate in 2020, and in 2022, she became the first trans incumbent to win re-election in a state senate.
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In her farewell speech to the Delaware Senate, she declared that “small states can do big things.”
“As I head out and head to Washington, D.C.,” she continued, “I take with me the lessons that I have learned here. I take with me the hope that I have found here, that despite the rancor and the toxicity that we too often see in our politics, that we do genuinely have more in common than what divides us; that we can — and that we must — have conversations across disagreement, that we can have a politics of grace and a politics of progress.”
Randall is now the first out LGBTQ+ Latina woman in Congress, as well as the first out LGBTQ+ Congressperson from Washington state.
Randall, a former Planned Parenthood fundraiser and member of her state senate’s Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee, made women’s rights and economic issues central to her campaign.
“What I learned in that job is that it is really important that we are bold about our commitment to reproductive freedom because it’s not just left-wing Democrats that care about abortion rights,” Randall told LGBTQ Nation in May about her time at Planned Parenthood.
“It’s swing voters in Arizona, and Nevada. It’s Republicans in many communities. It’s folks who understand that our bodily autonomy and our ability to make decisions about our families and our teachers is so important. And that’s been affirmed to me time after time in my elections here in my purple district.”
Randall first ran for the state senate seat representing her hometown in 2018, when she defeated her “extreme MAGA” Republican opponent by a mere 102 votes. She was most recently the state Senate’s Majority Whip.
She also told LGBTQ Nation in May that if she won, she’d be most excited “to bring the voices of my neighbors with me to make tough decisions and make investments in building a brighter future for all of us.”
Johnson is now the first out LGBTQ+ congressperson from the South. In her 2018 state House race, Johnson unseated Matt Rinaldi, the anti-LGBTQ+ incumbent who wrote the state’s infamous anti-trans bathroom bill. In that role, she became the first lawmaker in the state to serve while married to a same-gender spouse.
Johnson’s landslide victory included earning the majority of votes in even some of the most Republican counties in her district.
“Julie Johnson is the representative Texas needs in Congress, where she’ll fiercely combat the bigotry and ignorance that’s taken over too much of our state politics,” said LGBTQ+ Victory Fund President & CEO Annise Parker.
“Julie has an enviable record of advocating for her constituents in the state House, and there’s no doubt that experience will make her an invaluable member of the Texas congressional delegation. Whether she’s defending your right to reproductive health care or advancing public education, you can trust Julie to have your back in the tough fights ahead.”
In December, the Dallas Voice named Johnson “LGBTQ Texan of the Year,” calling her a “bright spot” in the “disastrous” overall results for Democrats.
“Throughout her six years in the Texas Legislature, Johnson has remained a steadfast voice for common sense as well as for LGBTQ civil rights,” the Voice said. “And as we ready ourselves to keep up the fight in the face of so much fear and uncertainty, the knowledge that Johnson will be as much a steadfast force for sanity and progress in Washington as she was in Austin, provides a steadying hand and a ray of hope for the community.”
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