First openly transgender member of Congress responds to Capitol bathrooms’ ‘biological sex’ ruling

November 21, 2024 journo

The first openly transgender person elected to the US House of Representatives Sarah McBride says she is “not here to fight about bathrooms” in response to a bill aimed at blocking House members and employees from using bathrooms “other than those corresponding to their biological sex” on Capitol Hill.

On Wednesday, US House Speaker Mike Johnson said that all single-sex bathrooms in the US Capitol building would be reserved for individuals of that biological sex.

Delaware Representative-elect Sarah McBride responded with a post on social media platform X, stating that she would “follow the rules” outlined by Speaker Johnson but called it a distraction from more substantive issues.

“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families,” she wrote.

Speaker Johnson said members could use bathrooms in their private offices, which can be a 10-minute walk from the House floor where voting and debate take place, or unisex bathrooms in the Capitol.

In the statement — which he made on Transgender Day of Remembrance, which recognises transgender people whose lives have been lost due to anti-trans violence — Speaker Johnson said that “women deserve women’s only spaces”.

The issue became a flashpoint after Republican Representative Nancy Mace filed a resolution to impose that requirement, which targeted McBride.

Mace on social media called her bill “common sense” and referred to transgender women as “men in a mini skirt.”

McBride said the bill was a distraction attempt from far right-wing extremists.

“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,” McBride continued in her statement.

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McBride focused her successful election campaign on economic issues, including protections for unions and affordable healthcare and childcare.

The 34-year-old will make history as the first openly transgender congresswoman when she is sworn in next year.

She was the first openly transgender person to serve as a state senator when she was elected in Delaware in 2020, first to speak at a US national political party convention in 2016, and first to intern at the White House in 2012, under Democratic then-president Barack Obama.

Other Democrats have said the effort to exclude transgender people from single-sex bathrooms amounts to bullying.

Transgender rights have become a political rallying cry for right-wing politicians in the US.

Lawmakers in 37 states introduced at least 142 bills to restrict gender-affirming healthcare for transgender and gender-expansive people in 2023, Reuters reported, nearly three times as many as the previous year.

Transgender Day of Remembrance is marked every November 20 and began in 1999 to honour Rita Hester, a trans woman who was killed in Massachusetts.

The day marks the end of Transgender Awareness Week, which is used to raise public knowledge about the transgender community and the issues they face.

ABC/wires