Republican challenger misgenders McBride during forum, forced to leave

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Republican challenger misgenders McBride during forum, forced to leave

https://www.washingtonblade.com/2026/09/18/republican-challenger-misgenders-mcbride-during-forum-forced-to-leave/ 🔗

Joe Reberkenny (18 Sep 2026)

Republican "Dr. Joe" Arminio, the Republican nominee for the First State's at-large U.S. House of Representatives seat, attempted to misgender the the country's first and only transgender member of Congress while at a forum on Thursday.

Arminio used the terms "his" and later "gentleman" when referring to U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) during his time on the mic before he was asked to leave the forum, hosted by the Jewish Federation of Delaware at the Siegel Jewish Community Center in Talleyville on Thursday night.

At that point, the crowd of about 100 people largely started booing Arminio, who then finished, "I would like to show respect to the speaker, that would be nice."

Moderator Ken Grant waited until Arminio was finished, then said, "this is your final warning, if you fail to show respect to anyone else on this stage, you'll be asked to leave."

Despite the apology and acknowledgement that he had committed what was, at the very least, a social taboo, he did it again 12 minutes later.

Despite his direct attacks on McBride's gender identity, she responded to the situation with grace, attempting to intervene to allow Arminio to still have a chance to speak despite not heeding the moderator's warnings.

However, Republican Senate candidate Michael Katz interrupted her shortly before Arminio was removed from the forum, which was meant to inform the Delaware electorate on the candidates' issues.

"Those who seek to represent Delaware must demonstrate integrity, judgment, decency, and respect — even toward people with whom they profoundly disagree," Katz's post read on Facebook. "For these reasons, I am calling on Joseph Arminio to withdraw his candidacy for the United States House of Representatives."
--------------------------
@Sarah B

[Lori Dee ✅]

One might be elected by a majority, but the job is to represent everyone. Even those who did not vote for you.

[Devlyn ✅]

"Thanks for coming in. You can go now."

[Laura Squirrel]

That reminds me of when Nancy Mace was reprimanded for calling Sarah a "->-bleeped-<-" and when that happened, she started yelling "->-bleeped-<-, ->-bleeped-<-, ->-bleeped-<-" into the damn mic. And people wonder why I have such a white-hot hatred for these people. They are absolute scum.

[Courtney G]

I adore her. I haven't met her but hope to someday as she's probably been less than 30 minutes from my home at times. She puts up with a lot of garbage and handles herself so well.

Please do yourself a favor - don't ever read the comments on any of her social media posts. There is some combination of bots and real people (I think mostly real people) that posts tons of transphobic comments on her threads. It's infuriating and heartbreaking. This is the kind of behavior that has been fomented from the top down. How any trans people can support any of these people is just beyond me.

[Lori Dee ✅]

I adore her. I haven't met her but hope to someday as she's probably been less than 30 minutes from my home at times. She puts up with a lot of garbage and handles herself so well.

I agree with this. Despite all the attacks, she always handles herself with professionalism and class. She has repeatedly stated that her gender has nothing to do with why she is in Washington. She was elected to do a job, and she stays focused on that.

Transphobes who attack her (or anybody) just show their ignorance.

[Mariah ✅]

So very true. A good human being never has to lower themselves to the level of those who attack us. How she handles herself is completely with integrity and class. Hugs
Mariah

I agree with this. Despite all the attacks, she always handles herself with professionalism and class. She has repeatedly stated that her gender has nothing to do with why she is in Washington. She was elected to do a job, and she stays focused on that.

Transphobes who attack her (or anybody) just show their ignorance.