Sarah McBride Keynote Speaker

Sarah McBride is a progressive activist and politician – she is a Democratic member of the Delaware Senate since January 2021.  Previously she was the National Press Secretary at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization. In 2016, Sarah made history when she became the first openly transgender person to address a major party convention.

A native of Wilmington, Delaware, Sarah has been involved in politics and progressive advocacy for more than a decade. She co-founded a statewide high school young Democrats organization and worked for the campaigns of Governor Jack Markell (D-DE) and Attorney General Beau Biden (D-DE). During her sophomore year of college, Sarah was elected student body president at American University.

Sarah first made national headlines when, at the end of her term as student body president, she came out publicly as transgender in the student newspaper. She went on to intern in the Obama White House, the first openly trans woman to do so, and, after graduating from college, helped lead the successful effort to pass gender identity nondiscrimination protections in Delaware.

It was during her time at the White House that Sarah met Andrew Cray, a transgender man and fellow advocate. The two fell in love and began working together in the fight for LGBTQ equality. Andy was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2014, and just days after they married, he tragically passed away. Andy’s passing instilled in Sarah a firm belief in the urgency of political and social change.

As a spokesperson for the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, Sarah became one of America’s most public voices in the fight for LGBTQ equality, culminating in her address before the nation during the 2016 presidential election. Her moving memoir, “Tomorrow Will Be Different“ chronicles her journey as a transgender woman, from coming out to her family and school community, to fighting for equality in her home state and nationally, to her heartbreaking romance with her late husband.  She has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Vogue, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker.

From Delaware to North Carolina to Texas, Sarah is working to resist the politics of hate and to move equality forward.