Speaker Mike Johnson Imposes a Trans Restroom Ban
The House Speaker implemented a new rule requiring all transgender people to use Capitol facilities matching their "biological sex."
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced plans to prohibit transgender individuals from using public bathrooms that match their gender identity on the House side of the U.S. Capitol complex.
As first reported by The Hill, Johnson announced the ban in a public statement. Under House rules, the Speaker has “general control” of facilities in the chamber, giving Johnson the authority to issue policy regarding restroom usage.
“All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved only for individuals of that biological sex,” Johnson said in the statement. “It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol.”
As reported by Axios, Johnson told reporters that the policy is enforceable by the House Sergeant-at-Arms. “We have single-sex facilities for a reason. Women deserve women’s only spaces,” he said.
He also protested charges from Democrats that the measure was targeting a specific community.
“We’re not anti-anyone,” he said. “We’re pro-woman. I think it’s an important policy for us to continue. It’s always been, I guess, an unwritten policy, but now it’s in writing.”
Johnson’s statement — issued on Transgender Day of Remembrance, which memorializes transgender people who lost their lives to violence — came in response to a resolution introduced by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) seeking to restrict transgender women from accessing female-designated restrooms within the Capitol complex.
Mace confirmed in comments to reporters that she introduced the resolution in response to the election of U.S. Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who is slated to become the first out transgender member of Congress.
Neither Johnson or Mace have addressed the issue of how law enforcement or women using female restrooms will respond to incidents where masculine-presenting transgender men enter female restrooms, as required by both Mace’s resolution and Johnson’s new rule.
Mace had been lobbying Johnson to include her resolution in the rules package for the 119th Congress, arguing that the restriction was needed to protect the safety and privacy of women.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who previously criticized Mace’s resolution as too narrow in scope, reportedly told colleagues at a closed-door GOP conference meeting on Tuesday that she might get into a “physical altercation” if forced to share a bathroom with trans women, according to a source in the room.
Mace has since posted a video of herself in full gallop announcing that she’s filing a bill to ban transgender people from using facilities that align with their gender identity at all federal properties across the country.
“Men are not allowed in women’s spaces. Period. Full stop. End of story,” Mace barks in the video.
Johnson previously addressed the controversy on Tuesday, saying that “all new members” are welcome to the Capitol and that “all persons” are treated “with dignity and respect,” and promising to address concerns about women-only spaces while accommodating “the needs of every single person.”
He echoed remarks from Mace and Greene that misgendered McBride as male, offering his own opinion, based on his religious views, that a person cannot transition to another gender.
“Let me be unequivocally clear,” he said. “A man is a man, and a woman is a woman. And a man cannot become a woman.”
McBride and other Democrats have referred to the Republican push for a trans ban as “bullying” the congresswoman-elect and an attempt to demonize transgender people — a tactic that appeared to bear fruit for the GOP in the most recent presidential elections.
“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 said in a statement. “We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars.”
Mark Pocan, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, slammed Johnson’s new restriction.
“Speaker Johnson’s holier-than-thou decree to ban transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their identity is a cruel and unnecessary rule that puts countless staff, interns, and visitors to the United States Capitol at risk,” Pocan said in a statement. “How will this ever be enforced? Will the Sergeant-at-Arms post officers in bathrooms? Will everyone who works at the Capitol have to carry around their birth certificate or undergo a genetic test?
“This policy isn’t going to protect anyone — but it is going to open the door to rampant abuse, harassment, and discrimination in the Capitol,” Pocan added. “Republicans can’t even pass a Farm Bill or pass major appropriations bills, so they turn to using these cruel attacks to distract from their inability to govern and failure to deliver for the American people.”
Get Metro Weekly delivered to your inbox. Click here for a free subscription.
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.