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US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday expressed support for a Republican effort to ban Democrat Sarah McBride – the first openly transgender person elected to the US Congress – from using women's restrooms in the US Capitol once she will be sworn in next year.
“We will not have men in the women's restrooms,” Johnson told The Associated Press. “I've been consistent about that with everyone I've talked to about this.”
Earlier in the day, Johnson stressed the need to “treat all persons with dignity and respect.”
“This is an issue that Congress has never had to address before, and we're going to do it in a purposeful way, with consensus among members.”
A resolution proposed Monday by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina would ban lawmakers and House of Representatives staff from “using same-sex facilities other than those that correspond to their biological sex.” Mace said the bill specifically targets McBride, who was elected to the House of Representatives from Delaware this month.
The debate over whether transgender people should be allowed to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender is widespread in the US and has been a central issue in Donald Trump's successful presidential campaign. At least eleven states have passed laws banning transgender girls and women from girls' and women's restrooms in public schools, and in some cases other government facilities.
“I'm absolutely, 100 percent, going to stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a women's room, in our locker rooms, in our locker rooms,” Mace told reporters on Tuesday.
The second-term congresswoman added that Johnson assured her that the bathroom provision would be included in any House Rules changes for the next Congress.
“If not,” she said, “I'm ready to pick up the mantle.”
Democrats reject the Republican efforts
Democrats, including McBride, called the Republican Party's efforts “bullying” and a “distraction.”
“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,” McBride said. “We should focus on reducing the costs of housing, health care and child care, not on creating culture wars.”
Rep. Katherine Clark, the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives, joked that Republicans in the House of Representatives are already “off to a good start.”
“What are they talking about there, on Day 1: where one of the 435 members goes… to use the bathroom?” the Massachusetts lawmaker said during a news conference on Tuesday. “Is that their focus?”
McBride was elected to the House of Representatives this month after building a national profile as an LGBTQ+ activist and raising more than $3 million in campaign contributions from across the country. She became the first openly transgender person to address a major party convention in the United States in 2016, when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
Following her election victory earlier this month, McBride said her victory was “a testament to the people of Delaware that we have shown time and time again that in this neighborly state, we judge candidates based on their ideas and not their identities. “
