Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was asked earlier today if Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE), who is transgender, is a man or a woman, a reference to a resolution introduced by House Republicans to ban her from using women’s facilities at the Capitol.
Johnson refused to take a stand. “I’m not gonna get into this,” Johnson replied.
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She said he refused to help his family because of his extreme beliefs.
He said that “all new members” are welcome to the Capitol and that “all persons” are treated “with dignity and respect,” even though denying a person’s gender identity could easily be understood as a form of disrespect.
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Johnson then referred to it as a “silly debate” but added that “there’s a concern about uses of restroom facilities and locker rooms and all that. This is an issue that Congress has never had to address before, we’re gonna do that in a deliberate fashion with member consensus on it, and we will accommodate the needs of every single person.”
Reporter: Is Representative Elect Sarah McBride a man or a woman?Johnson: Look, I’m not going to get into this
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) November 19, 2024 at 4:40 PM
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Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who has a long history of transphobia, introduced a resolution yesterday banning trans women from using the women’s facilities at the Capitol, just weeks after McBride became the first out trans person elected to Congress.
Mace posted about her resolution dozens of times on X yesterday and specifically mentioned or re-shared posts about McBride in support of her resolution. She also referred to herself as a “TERF,” or a trans exclusionary radical feminist, and said that being transgender is a form of “make believe dress up.”
McBride, though, has tried to downplay the resolution, saying that she is focused on issues that her constituents care about, like housing and health care.
“Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on,” she said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) joined Mace in demanding McBride be banned from women’s facilities, accusing “the Left” of “forcing their sick trans ideology down our throats and invading our spaces and our women’s sports” and saying that she’s “sick of this s**t.”
One of Greene’s main focuses in Congress has been opposition to transgender equality, including a bill to ban gender-affirming care for trans minors at the federal level and to make it more difficult for trans adults to access it.
Mace campaigned several times on anti-trans attitudes. In 2020, she told voters that her Democratic opponent and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) worked together to pass a bill that closed down a local Marine Corps base due to “transgendered equality,” even though there was no such bill.
In 2022, Mace accused her Democratic challenger of providing “SEX CHANGE SURGERY. PUBERTY BLOCKERS. GENDER CHANGING HORMONES. FOR CHILDREN?” and giving four-year-olds cross-sex hormones, something that doesn’t happen. Her challenger, who was a pediatrician running for Congress, was forced to resign from her job as a doctor, saying that the hospital that employed her “left me out on a limb.”
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