House Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Wednesday that he is banning Congress’ first-ever transgender lawmaker — and all transgender women — from using women’s restrooms on Capitol grounds.
“All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” Jonson said in a statement on Wednesday. “It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol.”
Johnson’s declaration backtracked on a statement he gave Tuesday, when he told reporters he was “not going to get into this,” that he’s “not going to engaged in […] silly debates about this,” and that the House will address the issue “in a deliberate fashion, with member consensus on it.”
Earlier this month, Delaware Democrat Sarah McBride became the first transgender woman elected to the House of Representatives. As a new class of freshman lawmakers prepares to be sworn in as members of the 119th Congress in January, some Republicans are already attempting to politicize McBride’s arrival to Capitol Hill.
On Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution to prohibit transgender elected officials, their staff, and other Capitol employees from using bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex.
“Your mental illness will not become my new normal,” Mace wrote Wednesday on social media. Hours later, Mace revealed that she had introduced legislation to “prohibit individuals from accessing or using single-sex facilities on Federal property other than those corresponding to their biological sex.” The bill would essentially expand Mace’s resolution to all federal government buildings across the country.
Mace, who also filmed herself taping a paper with the word “BIOLOGICAL” above a women’s restroom sign at the Capitol, has received staunch support from culture war hardliner Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.), who wrote: “Mentally ill men pretending to be women need to stay out of our bathrooms and our sports. They don’t have rights to our spaces or identity!!!”
For her part, McBride has urged lawmakers to focus on actually legislating for the people instead of policing her use of the restroom.
“This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing,” McBride wrote in a statement on social media. “We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care and child care, not manufacturing culture wars.”
“Every day Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully,” she added. “I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness.”
