Trans Advocate Sarah McBride Speaks At Opening Ceremony NYFW Show
For their show at NYFW, Opening Ceremony brought together an impressive cast of accomplished and funny women to participate in a "political pageant" where each "contestant" was asked to reflect on a different topical question.
The celebrity guests included comedians Whoopi Goldberg, Rashida Jones, Aidy Bryant and Ali Wong, as well as trans advocate and Human Rights Campaign press secretary Sarah McBride.
Once McBride hit the stage, host Fred Armisen asked her the simple question: "What does it mean to be an American?"
Responding off the cuff, the activist delivered a profound musing on the ever-expanding definition:
Being an American is an action, it's an ideal to strive for...It's being part of this constantly perfecting union that with each generation expands our scope and human understanding of "We the people."
We must never be a country that says there's only one way to love, only one way to look, and only one way to live. We must be a country where everyone has the freedom to live openly and equally. A country that says that you can be gay, you can be trans, you can be a woman, you can be black, you can be Muslim, you can be anything, [that] with dreaming big dreams, you can be any and all of those things and still be seen, still be valued, and still be respected as the equal humans we all are.
McBride made history this past July when she took to the stage at the Democratic National Convention, becoming the first trans individual to speak at a major political convention.
As she did at the Opening Ceremony show, her remarks at the DNC centered on her experiences as a proud transgender American.
h/t: The Cut
