According to a regulation that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., extended Friday, transgender persons will not be allowed to use gender-neutral single-sex restrooms next to the House Chamber.
The Congressional Record, a daily journal of congressional events, reflected Johnson’s policy during the 119th Congress, which included the ban. The House rules package that was approved on Friday at the first session of the House did not formally include the policy.
According to the record of Friday’s hearings, the policy specifies that all single-sex facilities, including locker rooms, changing areas, and restrooms, are only available to people of that biological sex.
According to the Congressional Record, the policy will be implemented by the sergeant-at-arms and will be applicable to any parts of the Capitol that fall under the Speaker’s broad jurisdiction under clause 3 of rule I. According to House rules, this includes the House’s hall, the passageways and corridors in the section of the Capitol designated for the House, and any other unappropriated rooms in that section.
The Congressional Record on Friday notes that there are unisex facilities available throughout the Capitol and that each Member office has a private restroom.
In response to the election of Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Del., the country’s first openly transgender member of Congress, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., first suggested the provision as an amendment to the House rules in November.
Mace, who has frequently misgendered McBride, told reporters at the time, “I’m absolutely 100% gonna stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a women’s restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms.” Every step of the way, I will be there to fight you.
Johnson soon declared his support for Mace’s endeavor, stating that women should have their own areas.
Despite claiming that the restroom policy has been House policy since Johnson’s remarks in November, Mace told NBC News on Friday that she would present legislation to formalize it in Congress.
McBride said she will respect Johnson’s regulations even if she disagrees with them, but she has repeatedly called the move an attempt to divert attention from more pressing concerns.
I was always aware that some Republican caucus members would try to take advantage of my position as the nation’s largest state’s representative in Congress to divert attention from the reality that they have no practical policy answers for the problems that genuinely face this nation. McBridetold The New Yorker. The attempt to politicize the fact that nobody really cares what bathroom I use did not surprise me. It might wait until January, I did think. It came a bit sooner than I thought it would. When we learned of this impending event, I was still getting lost in the Capitol tunnels.
Regarding Johnson’s policies, a McBride representative declined to speak further.
In recent years, and especially during the election, Republicans have leaned more and more into anti-trans rhetoric. According to AdImpact, a company that monitors political ad expenditures, between September 19 and November 1, President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters spent about $60 million on eight anti-trans network-TV advertisements, one of which was in Spanish.
In an interview with Time magazine last month, Trump seemed to minimize transgender problems, stating that he agreed with McBride that politicians ought to be concentrating on more pressing matters.
Yes, I agree with it. Without a doubt, he informed Time. I don’t want to discuss the restroom problem. They will have to settle whatever the law ultimately decides since it has to do with a very tiny number of people and has torn our nation apart.
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