WASHINGTON — South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican, wants Congress to ban transgender women from using women’s bathrooms on Capitol Hill, as Delaware Rep.-elect Sarah McBride — the first openly transgender House member in U.S. history — is set to take office in the new year.
At a news conference Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., declined to answer a question about how he would approach Mace’s motion to change House rules to bar transgender women from “using biological women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol.” Democrats, including members of leadership, pushed back on the move as “disgusting” and “bullying" but did not articulate a strategy to prevent the Republican House majority from barring McBride from using women’s bathrooms.
“We have rights as women, and we have the right not to be bombarded by men in our restrooms, changing rooms or locker rooms,” Mace told reporters Tuesday.
Mace wants the sergeant-at-arms, the House of Representatives’ chief law enforcement officer, to enforce the rule. On social media and in interviews, Mace repeatedly referred to McBride as a man and implied giving her access to women’s bathrooms would put “women and girls in harm’s way.” McBride declined to comment on Mace’s motion or answer questions about her personal security as she arrived on Capitol Hill for a House Democratic Caucus meeting Monday, telling reporters it was “good to see you all.”
“Good to see you all.”
— Cassie Semyon (@casssemyon) November 19, 2024
Rep.-Elect @SarahEMcBride didn’t take questions this morning on the way out the House Democratic Caucus meeting. pic.twitter.com/QqkqCUcfmg
“Everyday Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully, I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness,” McBride wrote on Monday night as news of Mace’s motion broke. “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. We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars.
“Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on,” she added.
McBride is a state senator in Delaware who ran for Congress to replace Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who ran for and won an open Senate seat. McBride won nearly 58% of the vote. She previously interned at the Obama White House, worked for the well-established LGBTQ lobbying organization Human Rights Campaign and worked on local Democratic campaigns in Delaware — including on the 2010 reelection campaign of then-Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, the son of President Joe Biden who died from cancer in 2015. Her 2018 memoir features a foreword by the elder Biden, in which he wrote transgender equality was “the civil rights issue of our time.”
The dispute between Mace and McBride comes after congressional Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump ran against Democrats in part by deriding the party’s support for transgender civil rights and as some centrist Democrats have begun to question the political expediency of defending transgender Americans, many of whom have expressed fear that a second Trump administration will result in harm to their community and a rollback of Biden administration policies protecting LGBTQ rights
“The radical left would rather call me an extremist for being a feminist fighting to protect the rights of women and girls,” Mace said in a video posted to social media Monday. “If being a feminist makes me an extremist or a bigot or a monster, I’m totally here for it because I’m going to fight like hell for every woman and every little girl to protect you and keep you safe.”
Punchbowl News reported that Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene said during a meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday she would get into a “physical altercation” if a transgender woman used the women’s bathroom on Capitol Hill. Greene refused to say to the press on Tuesday whether she made the comment but called the incoming congresswoman “mentally ill” and “a predator.”
McBride has not been accused of sexual misconduct or a crime of any kind and is Delaware’s sole elected member of the House of Representatives. The American Medical Association, among many other leading medical authorities, has stated that identifying as transgender is not a mental illness and “implies no impairment in a person’s judgment, stability, or general social or vocational capabilities.”
The AMA has also written that prohibiting transgender people from using restrooms and other facilities aligned with their gender identity “undermine well-established treatment protocols for gender dysphoria, expose individuals to stigma and discrimination as well as potential harassment and abuse and impair their social and emotional development, leading to poorer health outcomes throughout life.”
Johnson declined to state an opinion on Mace’s motion, saying "we welcome all new members with open arms who are duly-elected representatives of the people” and that he won’t “engage in silly debates about this.”
“This is an issue that Congress has never had to address before," Johnson said. "We’re going to do that in a deliberate fashion with member consensus on it, and we will accommodate the needs of every single person."
Democrats did rally to McBride’s defense, with California Rep. Robert Garcia telling Spectrum News that he thought Mace’s effort was “disgusting” and that House Democrats support McBride “100% because she’s an incredible member.” At a leadership news conference, Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark — the second-ranking Democrat in the House — said she believes Americans think people should “mind your own business about where people do their business.”
“The notion that this incoming, small House Republican Conference majority is beginning to transition to the new Congress by bullying a member of Congress — this is what we’re doing?” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. “This is your priority?”