Conservative members of Congress pushed back on biological male Rep. Tim McBride, D-Del., at a women-only press conference on legislation that would allow victims to sue the creators of nonconsensual sexually explicit artificial intelligence content on Thursday.
McBride, who now goes by the name Sarah, began identifying as a woman 10 years before being elected to Congress in 2014.
“He didn’t belong, and he will never be one of us,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., wrote on X on Thursday.
Other members of Congress, such as Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz, also spoke out against McBride for his unwanted appearance at the press conference.
“Why did a man show up at a women-only press conference? Biological men can never be women,” Biggs wrote.
McBride, Biggs, and Mace did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
McBride’s appearance at the press conference on the DEFIANCE Act, which passed the Senate last week and is now headed to the House of Representatives for a vote, ties into a larger and ongoing national debate on biological males who identify as women.
National Debate on Self-identifying Women
The comments from the conservative members of Congress come amid a national debate on whether biological men who self-identify as women can be socially and legally classified as one.
In Feb. 2025, President Donald Trump signed the Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports executive order, which banned biological males from competing in federally funded women’s sports.
Trump argued that allowing men who identify as women in women’s sports is a direct violation of Title IX of the Education Act of 1972, which states that educational institutions receiving federal funds cannot deny women an equal opportunity to participate in sports.
Trump also argued that federal courts in the cases of Tennessee v. Cardona and Kansas v. U.S. Dept. of Education have previously recognized that “ignoring fundamental biological truths between the two sexes deprives women and girls of meaningful access to educational facilities.” Trump’s order then called on Congress to protect biological women in education.
Weeks before, the House passed Rep. Greg Steube’s, R-Fla., Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which was sent to the Senate for a vote.
“Men have no place in women’s sports,” Steube wrote in a statement. “Republicans have promised to protect women’s sports, and under President Trump’s leadership, we will fulfill this promise.”
Democrat senators have since blocked the legislation from reaching the president’s desk for a final signature.
Democratic opponents of the legislation claim that Republicans are “fearmongering” on the issue of transgenders and have labeled proponents of the legislation as “transphobic.”
