Sarah McBride, Congress’s First Transgender Member, Faces the Trump Era

Representative Sarah McBride, Democrat of Delaware and the first openly transgender member of Congress, realized shortly after she won her race that going to the bathroom on Capitol Hill was going to pose a problem in her new job.

“The more I thought about it, I realized that it would not be safe for me to use the restrooms,” she said Monday over coffee, after attending President Trump’s inauguration.

That morning, she sat on her hands in the Capitol Rotunda as Mr. Trump received a standing ovation for stating that “there are only two genders: male and female.” On her way out, Ms. McBride ended up walking next to Pete Hegseth, the embattled defense secretary nominee who has railed against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the military.

“Surreal,” was all she had to say about that.

But such awkward interactions are a reminder of the complicated position Ms. McBride occupies in Washington. She has entered Congress as a barrier-breaking representative of a small and vulnerable population at a time when L.G.B.T.Q. rights are under assault and Republicans, who now hold a governing trifecta, see political gains to be made in rolling back the rights of transgender people in particular.

It has already given Ms. McBride more of a spotlight than the average freshman lawmaker in the minority — and prompted her to be very careful about when and how she uses her singular position.

Two months ago, when Ms. McBride came to Washington to attend congressional orientation and had yet to be sworn in, Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican saw an opening and marked her arrival by introducing a measure to bar transgender individuals from using women’s restrooms and changing rooms in the Capitol complex.