‘State of Firsts’ documentary explores Sarah McBride’s historic first months in Congress

When Rep. Sarah McBride, the nation’s first openly transgender member of Congress, said in November that she would comply with a policy from House Republicans that banned her from using public women’s restrooms in the House, many in the transgender community were disappointed — and some even furious.

Some people expected McBride, as the only trans member of Congress, to fight more, especially given efforts by state Republicans and the Trump administration to roll back trans rights.

In “State of Firsts,” a documentary about McBride’s election that will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on Saturday, McBride says the criticism from some in her own community hurt but that she felt she would be giving in to Republicans by responding in a way that made her less effective at her job.

“I also think people misunderstand the difference between activists and elected officials and the roles that those respective jobs play in social change and social movement,” she says. “Even if you disagree with that, there would be a bounty on my head if I said that I would not comply.”

The documentary explores the unique pressures McBride faced entering Congress. It provides some of the first glimpses at how the bathroom resolution and the criticism from her own community has affected her, and it addresses questions about the limits and challenges of representation and of being a historic “first” in federal office.

“It’s easy to tell a simple story about a first or about a person’s experience, but you don’t get many lessons learned from simple stories,” McBride told NBC News ahead of the documentary’s premiere. “My motivation in agreeing to this was to hopefully help chronicle what it was truly like … so that others who come after me can maybe pull from some of the lessons and some of the experiences, so that their experience is maybe a little bit easier or they can do it a little bit better.”

Being first isn’t necessarily new for McBride. She became the first out trans woman to work in the White House when she interned with the Obama administration, according to her 2018 memoir, “Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality.” Then, in 2016, she became the first trans person to speak at a major political convention when she gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention. In 2020, she became the country’s first openly trans state senator.

Though McBride had an idea of what it was like to be a “first,” she entered Congress at an unprecedented time for trans people, as dozens of states have enacted restrictions on the bathrooms trans people can use in schools and government buildings and their access to transition-related care and school sports.

The documentary also shows how the Democratic Party has been fractured both by the conservative campaign to restrict trans rights and the ongoing war in Gaza.

The documentary shows McBride knocking on constituents’ doors before the Democratic primary election in Delaware in September. McBride asks a constituent whether she can count on their support, and the constituent says, “The only thing that would dissuade us from voting for you is can we count on you to call for a ceasefire?” McBride responds that she has called for a ceasefire, and the constituent asks, “How much can we count on you to be vocal about it?” before becoming emotional and saying it’s hard to see images of kids who “look like our kid.” (The film also shows the reporter of this article asking McBride about the interaction in an interview.)

Chase Joynt, the documentary’s director, said it was important for him to show that moment not only because it revealed an important issue for one of McBride’s constituents, but also because it spoke to a larger theme of the film: that much of the public expected McBride to be an activist, even though that isn’t who she has been for most of her political career as a progressive Democrat largely in line with the party’s platform.

“One of the central tensions in the film and of this political moment are the frictions between activist and electoral strategies of social change and the pressures put on politicians, in particular, to make statements and make claims and to be constantly negotiating what’s at stake in all of those moves,” Joynt said.

The documentary delves into the LGBTQ community’s complex response to McBride’s becoming a “first.” It includes audio from Slate’s “Outward” podcast, in which writer Jules Gill-Peterson says, “This first elected representative is really not one that it seems like many trans people are going to get excited about, given some of her policy positions and the way that she’s sort of aligned with the party establishment.”

Co-host Christina Cauterucci, a Slate editor, responds: “I think she’s had to be like that. I think a trans person who was more radical in any sense just simply would not have achieved what she’s achieved.”

Joynt said he hopes the documentary encourages people to think about the potentials and limitations of representation in political office.

“We can expand that conversation to think about a politics of representation that requires trans people to be good, that requires trans people to be palatable, to be on the right side, whatever that might mean, of certain issues,” Joynt said.

Joynt said one of the “perils” of coverage of political figures, particularly those who are “firsts,” is that “we put a lot of pressure on individual people to represent all of the various issues and needs,” when, in reality, no one person of any identity can represent all relevant views.

McBride said that with this film, she wants people to see more than just headlines and short video clips. She wants them to get a glimpse of the tradeoffs and challenges — as well as the joy and humor — that come with being a first in Congress.

“It’s so easy to forget the fullness of who people are and the complexities that every single person is navigating and often the impossible choices that people have to make,” she said.

She added that, since the bathroom resolution, she has become “more confident now than I have ever been that the approach that I am taking since getting to Congress is working.”

“Some of my colleagues realized that I’m just not fun,” she said, laughing. “I’m not going to give them the response that they want, because I always knew that this was not about their actual, genuine distaste for trans people, it’s because they wanted attention, and because I refuse to let them use me as a pawn, the reality show has moved on to other free gimmicks.”