House Speaker Mike Johnson has ordered the first transgender member of Congress to be barred from using the women’s restroom after widespread outrage at the decision that will shake the US Capitol.
Newly elected Sarah McBride, who will become the first openly transgender MP to be sworn into office in January, will have to use the men’s facilities.
The decision comes after a week of outrage from outspoken Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Nancy Mace, RS.C., who called McBride a ‘man’, a predator and accused him of being ‘mentally ill.’
Republicans are cheering for Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
Trump has promised to end taxpayer funding for sex-change treatment, bar transgender people from joining the military, and ban trans athletes from women’s sports.
In fact, data shows the number of adults who identify as transgender in the US is between 0.5 percent and 1.6 percent.
Mace has introduced a bill to prohibition transgender women from using the women’s restroom on Capitol Hill.
GOP leaders finally weighed in on the controversy in a statement Wednesday saying McBride should use the bathroom for her biological sex.
“All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” Johnson said in a statement.
‘It is important to note that each Member’s office has its own private bathroom, and unisex bathrooms are available throughout the Capitol,’ he continued. ‘Women deserve only women’s space.’
DailyMail.com reached out to McBride for comment.
Mace said he was ‘standing up for women’ by campaigning to stop McBride from using women’s toilets.
‘I was a victim of abuse myself. I survived rape. I have PTSD from the abuse I have suffered at the hands of men, and I know how vulnerable women and girls are in private spaces,” he fired back at the reporter there.
Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride will be the first transgender member of Congress. On Wednesday, Speaker Johnson announced that single-sex facilities at the US Capitol are reserved for those biological sexes, banning them from using the women’s room on Capitol Hill.
‘If being a feminist makes me an extremist, I’m really here.
‘So I would absolutely, 100 per cent stop any man who wants to be in the women’s bathroom, in the locker room, (or) in the dressing room.’
Mace also revealed that he received death threats because of his position on McBride.
He said he would not be ‘silenced’ no matter if critics were ‘calling me names, making death threats, I don’t care. I didn’t stop.’
Meanwhile, Greene doubled down on Mace’s resolution, describing McBride as ‘mentally ill’ this week: ‘He’s a man. He is biologically male, so he is not allowed to use women’s bathrooms, women’s gyms, locker rooms and spaces designated for women.
‘He’s a biological male,’ she said again. ‘He has a lot of places to go.’
During a news conference with House Republican leaders on Tuesday morning, a reporter asked Johnson if McBride was a boy or a girl.
“I’m not going to participate in this,” Johnson replied. ‘We welcome all new members with open arms who are duly elected representatives of the people.’
He said he believed it was a ‘commandment that we treat everyone with dignity and respect’ and said he would do so.
‘I’m not going to get into a silly debate about it. There are concerns about the use of bathroom facilities and locker rooms etc. This is an issue that Congress has never dealt with,’ Johnson continued.
“We will do it deliberately with the consensus of the members, and we will meet the needs of everyone,” he said.
He reportedly committed to Mace behind closed doors on Tuesday that he would include provisions in the House rule package including his measure.
The note was immediately met with pushback from MAGA loyalists and conservatives online. Just a few hours later, Johnson tried to explain.
Speaker Mike Johnson was asked during a November 19 press conference whether Sarah McBride, who is transgender, is male or female. He responded that he ‘wouldn’t be participating in this’ and all new members were welcomed. He said that ‘concerns about the use of bathroom facilities’ would be dealt with ‘in a deliberate manner by consensus of members’
“Let me be clear: a man is a man, and a woman is a woman, and a man cannot be a woman,” he said.
Mace wasn’t shy when asked if the move was specifically aimed at his incoming teammate McBride. Ssaid McBride should be forced to use the men’s room.
‘He was born a biological male, he had to use the men’s toilet, that’s what it was,’ Mace told reporters on Monday afternoon.
Representative-elect Sarah McBride was elected to represent Delaware in November by double digits. She will enter Congress as the first transgender member of Congress. He was previously elected to the Delaware Senate
Rep. Nancy Mace speaks to reporters on November 19 after she introduced a resolution to ban trans women from using women’s bathrooms at the US Capitol
However, it is not clear how the resolution will be implemented. When asked, Mace didn’t have a clear answer.
‘Here’s the deal, biological men shouldn’t be in a woman’s private space. Period,” he said.
Mace’s resolution comes after Republicans including President-elect Trump put attacks on transgender Americans front and center in their messaging leading up to the 2024 election.
McBride slammed the South Carolina congressman’s move Monday night with a post on X.
“Every day, Americans work with people who have a different life journey than theirs and engage with them with respect. I hope members of Congress can do the same good,” he wrote.
He called the resolution a ‘blatant attempt by right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what the American people are facing.’
“We should focus on reducing housing, health care, and child care costs, not manufacturing culture wars,” he wrote. ‘Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on.’
McBride, who was first elected as a Delaware state senator, won the blue state by double digits earlier this year with nearly 58 percent of support.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed the Republican effort on Tuesday. He said the small GOP House majority began the transition to the new Congress ‘by bullying members of Congress.’
‘This is what we’re doing? Is this the lesson you learned from the election in November?’ he asked.
‘This is your priority if you want to harass members of Congress in opposition to welcome them to join this body so that we can all work together to get it done and deliver real results for the American people?’ asked Jeffries.
He suggested Republicans shouldn’t focus too much on spending cuts and the housing crisis.
