Incoming congresswoman Sarah McBride made history as the first out transgender person elected to Congress. Just two weeks after her victory, the Delaware representative has found herself in the midst of a bathroom battle on Capitol Hill.
Not only is she facing pressure from her Republican counterparts, namely House Speaker Mike Johnson and South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace, McBride is now receiving backlash from members of the LGBTQ+ community.
On November 18, Mace began her deliberate attack on McBride by introducing a bill to ban transgender people, including congressional members, from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. The bill came a two months before McBride is set to be sworn into Congress, and Mace was not shy about sharing vocalizing her hatred.
“Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say. I mean, this is a biological man,” Mace told reporters Monday, adding that McBride “does not belong in women’s spaces, women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, period, full stop.”
McBride responded to the introduced bill and Mace’s inappropriate comments later that day, saying she hopes her fellow members of Congress can be kind to “people who have life journeys different than their own.”
Every day Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully, I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness.
— Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) November 19, 2024
“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,” she continued on X. “We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars.”
At first, House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to give reporters a straight answer on how Congress would handle the bill, claiming November 19 that he is working to “provide accommodations for every member of Congress.”
However, that statement was short-lived. A day later, Johnson released a statement, effectively restricting Capitol Hill bathroom use based on .
“All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” the statement reads. “It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol.”
“Women deserve women’s only spaces,” he flagrantly claimed, despite actively banning a woman from a women’s space.
McBride issued a second response in the face of Johnson’s bill backing.
“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms, I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families,” she shared on X. “Like all members, I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them. This effort to distract from the real issues facing this country hasn’t distracted me over the last several days.”
I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families. pic.twitter.com/bCuv7pIZBY
— Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) November 20, 2024
McBride’s response has left some members of the LGBTQ+ community feeling confused and even betrayed, as first reported by The Advocate.
“I think McBride’s capitulation here sends the wrong message to the GOP and to the larger trans community,”Natalie Boedecker, a member of the trans community, told The Advocate last week. “The reaction I am seeing from prominent trans journalists and activists is extremely negative. They are seeing this as a betrayal.”
“I feel like I just got pulled right under the wheels of the bus by someone I thought was trying to pull me out,” the publication cited one user sharing on social media.
“It feels like a no-win scenario,” another wrote. “Either she fights for herself and other trans folks at the Capitol and gets nailed by [Republicans] for not advocating for the voters who sent her there, or she does what she’s done and gets nailed for not standing up for trans people. I’d prefer she fight, but I understand the nuance.”
While some on social media have voiced their concerns around McBride’s decision to focus her attention elsewhere, others have been quick to offer their support.
U.S. Senator John. Fetterman posted to X, offering a safe space in his private office bathroom.
“There’s no job I’m afraid to lose if it requires me to degrade anyone,” he stated. “If that’s a defining issue for a voter, there will be a different candidate. We have a bathroom in my office that anybody is welcome to use, including Representative-elect Sarah McBride.”
Wisconsin representative and Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus Mark Pocan also echoed the support and denounced Johnson’s bathroom ban.
“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,” he wrote.
“How will this even be enforced?” Pocan questioned. “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.”
14 states currently prohibit transgender people from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
