Republican bathroom bill targets first transgender member of Congress | American Congress

After Delaware elected its first ever openly transgender member of Congress earlier this month, a Republican introduced a bill to ban her from using the bathroom that matches her gender identity.

Republican Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced the bill, which comes just under two months before Sarah McBride is set to be sworn in as the first openly transgender member of Congress. The measure would put the House sergeant in charge of enforcing the bill, although Hill said it is unclear exactly how.

‘Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say. I mean, this is a biological male,” Mace told reporters on Monday, according to CNN. She added that Mace “doesn’t belong in women’s spaces, women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, locker rooms, period, period.”

McBride responded to X by saying the problem was a distraction.

“Every day, Americans get to work with people who have a different life journey than their own and treat them with respect. I hope members of Congress can show that same kindness,” she wrote on X.

“This is a blatant attempt by far-right extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing. We should focus on reducing the costs of housing, health care, and child care, not on creating culture wars. Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible, and that is what I am focused on.”

Mace’s bill comes as Republicans have attacked transgender people as part of a broader political culture war strategy, limiting the bathrooms they can use and the youth sports teams they can play on. Fourteen states currently have laws banning transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ rights group.

Laurel Powell, spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, said the measure would also target transgender people who had worked in the Capitol for years.

“Let’s call this what it is: Instead of focusing on issues that matter to Americans, Rep. Mace seeks the spotlight by brutally bashing her new colleague, the first openly transgender person elected to Congress discriminate,” Powell said. “This is just a political charade from an adult bully. It’s another warning sign that the incoming majority in the House of Representatives will continue to focus on tackling LGBTQ+ people rather than the cost of living, price gouging or any of the problems the American people have chosen them to solve. release.”

Many of Donald Trump’s ads in the latter part of his 2024 campaign focused on transgender rights, including one that flooded the airwaves highlighting Kamala Harris’ 2019 support for gender-affirming care. The campaign spent at least $17 million on the ad, according to NPR, which included the tagline: “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.”

Mace was once a moderate Republican from a competitive district in South Carolina. In 2021, she supported a bill that would have provided limited protections for LGBTQ+ people in public life.

“I am a strong supporter of LGBTQ rights and equality,” Mace told the Washington Examiner at the time. “No one should be discriminated against.”

But after state Republicans redrew the district to make it much more safely Republican, they moved significantly more to the right.

The U.S. Supreme Court said earlier this year that the gerrymandering of her district was legal, although a lower court ruled that Republicans had undertaken “effective whitening” by removing 30,000 black voters from the district.

Also on Monday, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene repeatedly misgendered McBride in a now-viral video in which she was asked about Mace’s bill.

“I support a resolution that keeps all biological males out of women’s restrooms, locker rooms and private spaces. Not just here in the Capitol complex, our office buildings, but all taxpayer-funded facilities,” Greene responded.

She was also asked how do you “check if someone is qualified to use the ladies room? There is clearly a new, openly transgender member of Congress.”

“That’s a man,” Greene said. ‘He’s a man. He is a biological male. He is therefore not allowed to use our ladies’ toilets, our ladies’ gym, our changing rooms and areas specifically intended for women. He is a biological male,” Greene said. “He has plenty of places he can go.”