House Speaker Mike Johnson declared Wednesday that women’s facilities in the Capitol complex are reserved for biological females, as Congress is poised to swear in its first openly transgender rep.
“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,” Johnson (R-La.) said in a statement.
“It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol,” he added. “Women deserve women’s only spaces.”
The speaker later told reporters that “like all House policy, it’s enforceable” and contended that “we’re not anti-anyone, we’re pro-woman” with the policy.
The speaker’s announcement comes in response to controversy among House Republican lawmakers over transgender Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who represents the First State’s at-large district.
“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families. Like all members, I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them,” McBride, who was born a man and identifies as a woman, responded in a statement on X.
“This effort to distract from the real issues facing this country hasn’t distracted me over the last several days, as I’ve remained hard at work preparing to represent the greatest state in the union come January,” added the 34-year-old incoming lawmaker.
Back in 2016, McBride publicly crowed about flouting a policy restricting transgender access to women’s bathrooms.
“Here I am in a NC women’s restroom that I’m barred from being in. Stop this. We are good people. #ThisIsTransgender, McBride wrote on X at the time with a selfie inside the bathroom.
President-elect Donald Trump indicated that same year that Caitlyn Jenner would be allowed to use women’s bathrooms at Trump Tower.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) both publicly and privately demanded that women’s facilities at the Capitol be reserved for biological females.
She has been backed up by multiple female Republican lawmakers such as far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Greene has even threatened to come to blows with McBride if they had an encounter in any women’s facility.
“He’s a man. He’s a biological male. So he is not allowed to use our women’s restrooms, our women’s gym, our locker rooms and spaces that are specified for women,” Greene told reporters this week. “He’s got plenty of places he can go.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) blasted Republicans this week for harping on the transgender bathroom issue.
“This is the lesson you’ve drawn from the election in November … that you want to bully a member of Congress?” Jeffries moaned during a press conference Tuesday.
Mace has drafted two resolutions to safeguard women’s facilities — one that did so in the Capitol complex and a second she announced Wednesday that applies to federal offices.
“Oh you thought threatening me would silence me? No. I just doubled down and filed a new bill to protect women and girls across the entire country on all federal property everywhere,” she proclaimed on X Wednesday.
