Watch: House Subcommittee Hearing on National Security Derailed when GOP Chairman Misgenders Congresswoman Sarah McBride

A House subcommittee meeting was convened on March 11 to address weighty issues around national security and U.S. support for Europe – but it ended in a hissy fit after the subcommittee's chair, Texas GOP Rep. Keith Self, took a petty jab at transgender lawmaker Sarah McBride, misgendering her as "the representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride."

In response to Self's remark, McBride, a Democrat, turned the tables by thanking him and referring to him as "Madame Chair."

"At a time of increased concern over the Trump administration's treatment of European allies, and its talks with Russia meant to end the war in Ukraine, the hearing was supposed to cover 'arms control, national security, and US assistance to Europe: review and reforms for the state department,'" reported UK newspaper the Guardian.

Self, however, elected to hurl a transphobic barb at McBride and then, upon being called out, end the session rather than focus on the serious work of governance.

It wasn't McBride's clapback that brought the session to a premature end, though; it was Self's quick wilting in the face of a male colleague chastising him for his conduct when Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Bill Keating, the subcommittee's ranking Democrat, spoke up to say, "Mr. Chairman, could you repeat your instruction again, please?"

"Yes," Self said, before veering into an attempt to justify his actions. "We have set the standard on the floor of the House."

Keating refused to let that pass, demanding, "What is that standard, Mr. Chairman?" Leaning into the moment, Keating added: "Would you repeat what you just said, when you introduced the duly elected representative from the United States of America, please!"

"I will," Self said, before doubling down: "The representative from Delaware, Mr. McBride."

"Mr Chairman, you are out of order!" Keating declared, before echoing one of the most famous phrases from American history: "Mr. Chairman, have you no decency? I mean, I've come to know you a little bit, but this is not decent," Keating added.

Attempting to skirt past Keating's criticism, Self proclaimed, "We will continue this hearing."

Again, Keating was having none of it. "You will not continue it with me," he declared angrily, "unless you introduce a duly elected representative the right way."

In a move that spoke volumes about the priorities of his party, Self precipitously ended the session rather than acknowledge McBride as a woman.

The ignominious moment was far from the first time House GOP lawmakers have shunned more consequential issues in favor of culture war-driven attacks on McBride.

"McBride has been repeatedly misgendered on the House floor by Republicans and even targeted with a bill, introduced by Nancy Mace of South Carolina, to ban transgender women from using women's bathrooms on Capitol Hill," the Guardian recalled. "Such a ban was imposed in November."

Mace has gone so far as to insist that Democratic colleagues "want penises in women's bathrooms," reducing the complex issue of gender identity to a question of crude external physiognomy. Unsurprisingly, the anti-trans zeal exhibited by Republican congressmembers led to an embarrassing bugle when, in January, Mace – together with fellow GOP congresswoman Lauren Boebert – "confronted a cisgender woman in the restroom" at the U.S. Capitol, as The Advocate reported at the time.

McBride has, for the most part, endured harassment from her fellow congressmembers with professionalism; as UK newspaper the Guardian noted, "McBride has said she intends to 'pick her battles' and avoid rising to Republicans' bait, because attacks on her are meant as distractions from policies which hurt ordinary Americans."

Clearly, McBride is able to fight the battles that she chooses. Moreover, unlike her Republican colleague, she was fully prepared to press forward with the essential business that had brought the subcommittee together.

"I was disappointed that the chair decided to end a committee hearing early," McBride told the press after Self's display. "I was prepared to move forward with my questions for the subcommittee on nuclear nonproliferation and US support for democratic allies in Europe."

McBride was elected last November as the first openly transgender member of congress. She had previously made history when she was elected to the Delaware state senate, the first openly trans person to be elected to such an office.

Taking to social media following the subcommittee's adjournment, McBride assured her constituents of her focus on the job they sent her to Washington to do.

"No matter how I'm treated by some colleagues," McBride posted, "nothing diminishes my awe and gratitude at getting to represent Delaware in Congress."

"It is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime," McBride added. "I simply want to serve and to try to make this world a better place."

Self, too, took to social media, where he seemingly sought to invoke the current president, whose election trail rhetoric demonized transgender Americans.

"It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes," Self posted, the CNN report detailed, "male and female."

In an executive order signed shortly after his inauguration – one of a number seen as hostile toward queer Americans – President Trump declared that only two genders will be acknowledged in the federal bureaucracy of the United States.

Overlooked in Self's post is the fact that McBride identifies as one of the two officially recognized sexes: female.

The Guardian recalled that in previous remarks to the press, McBride has labeled the attacks directed at her as attempts to throw attention off important issues by slamming hot-button controversies. McBride has spoken on the need to stick to serious business in the face of such theatrics.

"I think we are all united that attempts to attack a vulnerable community are not only mean-spirited but really an attempt to misdirect," McBride told CBS. "Because every single time we hear the incoming administration or Republicans in Congress talk about any vulnerable group in this country, we have to be clear that it is an attempt to distract."

To watch a video clip of the heated moment, follow this link.