Astoria's Billie McBride, shown here in an undated provided photo, was crowned Miss Trans Oregon earlier this year. She'll now vie for the Miss Trans USA title at the national competition in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from Nov. 7-10.
Courtesy Billie McBride
Astoria’s Billie McBride was crowned Miss Trans Oregon earlier this year. That means she’ll be vying for the Miss Trans USA title at the national pageant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from Nov. 7-10. A former business owner and an avid figure skater, McBride now spends her time advocating against anti-trans legislation. She joins us in the studio to talk more about her life and how she hopes the pageant will amplify her activism.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We end this week with Billie McBride. The 62-year-old Astoria resident is a former business owner and an avid figure skater. She now spends a lot of her time advocating against anti-trans legislation. To bring attention to that cause, she decided to enter the world of pageants – and she has been successful. She was crowned Miss Trans Oregon earlier this year. Next week, she’ll be vying for the Miss Trans USA title at the national pageant. That’ll be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She joins us now in the studio before she heads out. Billie McBride, congratulations and welcome.
Billie McBride: Thank you very much. It’s great to be here.
Miller: How did you decide to enter the Miss Trans Oregon pageant?
McBride: Well, I have been an activist for two years now, supporting trans youth, and their parents and their families. I retired recently. I’ve dedicated the next 10 years of my life to activism and I’ll reevaluate then. But I was contacting, as a private citizen, media groups around the country – everything from “60 Minutes” to “The View.” And I heard nothing back, absolutely nothing at all.
I was sitting at home very frustrated … and if you hear a little bit of an accent, I spent most of my adult life in Arkansas, although I’m a native Oregonian, born in Coos Bay. So I was sitting there and on the news came this little girl who had won a pageant, some little Miss Global World Infinity, some crazy name. [Laughter] And there she was, all smiles with her little plastic tiara, and the media was hanging on her every word. And I thought maybe, just maybe there would be a route for me in the pageant world.
So I went online and I found the Trans USA National Pageantry system, and they’ve only been around for about five years. But this will be the largest pageant that they’ve held and it’s in three categories – “Miss,” “Mr.” and “Mx” categories of excellence.
Miller: It seems like you were right, that you could use the pageant world as a way to draw attention to what you wanted to talk about, which was the lives that trans youth are leading now and legislative efforts to, say, make it harder for them to access healthcare.
McBride: Yes.
Miller: How do you feel about pageants themselves?
McBride: Well, pageants themselves, I think, are rather trite, but as far as opportunities for young women and so forth, if they want to go that route, more power to them. This pageant is actually not a beauty pageant. There are no requirements for age, which is good for me. There are also no weight requirements. They’re trying to create a situation where people that are not generally celebrated in society can be celebrated for who they are and what they give back to their communities. So it’s largely judged on your activism and what you’ve given back to your community.
Miller: There is a swimsuit part as well.
McBride: Well, there is and I noticed in the fine print that they require you to wear a one piece. I think that’s an effort to provide images that are more conservative and less outlandish for the general public to consume. I have no problem with that. I am more focused on the interview portion. I happen to look good in my clothing and I’m well preserved for 62. But beyond that, I am finding out what this is about. It is an avenue. It is not the end for me if I do not win it. If I do win it, it will be a hook for the national media. But if it’s not, I will continue my efforts.
One of my greatest, greatest accomplishments is speaking to high school groups, the GSA groups, the rainbow groups, to go in as an adult and to say these simple words: “I transitioned 40 years ago, you can have a long, successful, happy life. I’ve proven it. And I’m here to tell you about it.”
Miller: Forty years ago? Were you in Arkansas at that time?
McBride: Yes, I was.
Miller: So in the mid-1980s in Arkansas – what was life like for a trans person in Arkansas in the mid-‘80s, mid-‘90s, mid-2000s?
McBride: Well, in the mid-‘80s, in particular, you had to hide, completely had to hide. I worked a graveyard shift. I audited books at a hotel and I was able to do that from 11 [p.m.] to 7 [a.m.]. And then I had a job at a club where I was a celebrity impersonator. I do a marvelous Cher, by the way.
Miller: I do believe that.
McBride: Yeah, I do. And I’m known for it. You can go on @BillieMcBride86 online and see it. But as far as … I’m sorry, I’ve lost track. I got excited [Laughter].
Miller: Well, it seems like you were saying, you worked the graveyard shift because, I mean, that was a way to get a paycheck without literally, you were saying, to hide.
McBride: Yes, literally to hide. And I would go to the gender clinic once a week at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, because back then it was the end of the institutional administration of the procedures surrounding transness. And it was a gatekeeper mentality and you had to jump through every hoop that they set before you. I was in the midst of that in the ‘80s and I went through that program. It’s no longer that way, which is why there’s some controversy about vetting people for the procedure. You had to be approved. You had to be certified sane. So the argument that you’re insane, you must be insane to be trans, is not true at all because you are tested, your sanity is graded.
Miller: I’m curious – was it decades where you would say that you hid?
McBride: I hid had all my life, since childhood. I had a fractured childhood with parents that did not support me. And I learned early on that they were very prejudicial in their comments about people in situations, and I learned to keep my mouth shut.
Miller: I’m fascinated because what you’re doing now is the exact opposite. You’re saying you hid your entire life.
McBride: Yes.
Miller: Was there a moment when you said, I’m not going to hide anymore? I’m going to go up on a podium and I’m going to talk about these issues that I care deeply about.
McBride: There was an inflection point. I was watching a video from committee meetings for the Arkansas Legislature, when they were trying to take healthcare away from trans youth. There was a mother … and I’m sorry, I get emotional when I talk about this. She was begging, pleading for the life of her child, shaking the papers that she held in her hands. And I stood up off of my sofa and I screamed. I called my husband, Dave. And I said, “Dave, come home, I’ve got to talk to you about something. I have to do something.” And we had a long discussion about how I would approach this.
I had lived, and worked, and been in business, and taught children – generations of children – how to figure skate in Arkansas, in Little Rock. People knew me. And when I came out, and I went to the legislature and I testified, it was powerful because there were people in the room that recognized me that had no idea what my past was. I read them the Riot Act and it almost became viral – my testimony.
So I built on that to come to this pageant, because the pageant requires you to do this sort of thing. It requires you to be an activist, to be involved in your community. And when I read the byline and well, the information about the pageant, I realized I’d already done what they required. So I better go and find out if I’ll be reported for it.
Miller: You said earlier that the most important thing you say when you go to schools, or talk to families, talk to young trans people or their families, is that you transitioned 40 years ago and you have had a long, happy life. You’re proof that this can be done. What do you hear back when you say that?
McBride: Could you clarify just a little more?
Miller: I’m curious about the responses you get. If you say that to a young trans person today or their family … the message you’re saying is, in a sense, you can be OK. I’m curious what they say in return?
McBride: It is positive. I went to a high school in Vancouver back in the spring and spoke, and it was a circular format very much in peer-led support. There was a moderator, supervisor from high school staff and then there was a senior graduating who was a class moderator. And I spoke very frankly, very openly about my life, about the testimony that I had given and what was contained in it. And afterwards, I received a phone call. There was one particular student in that group that my story hit home. And when I had that conversation, I realized this was the motivation that I needed to become comfortable with discussing who I am and what I am, with anyone, anywhere.
Miller: Billie McBride, thank you so much for coming in and good luck in Milwaukee next weekend.
McBride: Thank you. I hope to win.
Miller: That is Billie McBride, Miss Trans Oregon 2024, vying for Miss Trans USA. That’ll be not this weekend, but next weekend in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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