Despite his promise yesterday that “all persons” will be treated “with dignity and respect” and that “we will accommodate the needs of every single person” when it comes to restroom policies at the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has banned transgender people from using the restroom that corresponds to their gender identities in the Capitol buildings.

Johnson announced the policy in a public statement today that said “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 Hill reports.

Related

Sarah McBride explains how she pulled off her historic victory
McBride insisted anti-trans ads weren’t what swung the election in Donald Trump’s favor.

“Women deserve women’s only spaces,” he added, even though his policy will force trans women to use men’s spaces.

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Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is a day to honor the trans and nonbinary people who lost their lives due to transphobic violence. Yesterday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) threatened to beat up Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) because she’s transgender as Greene and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) mounted a campaign to ban trans women from using women’s facilities at the Capitol in reaction to McBride’s historic election to Congress.

While members of Congress have private restrooms in their offices, this rule will still affect trans members of Congress when they have to spend long periods in other parts of the Capitol complex, like on the House floor, as part of their job duties.

Moreover, transgender staffers and trans people who visit Congress will have to find other accommodations outside of the Capitol complex. Banning trans people who visit the Capitol – which is a large set of buildings – from using the restroom could make them more unlikely to talk to their members of Congress.

Johnson’s announcement comes a day after Mace introduced a resolution banning trans women from using women’s facilities at the Capitol.

At first, Johnson wasn’t willing to comment on Mace’s resolution and promised that McBride and others would be treated “with dignity and respect.” Hours later, though, he issued a statement denying McBride’s identity, telling reporters: “For anyone who doesn’t know my established record on this issue, let me be unequivocally clear: a man is a man, and a woman is a woman, and a man cannot become a woman.”

“That said, I also believe that’s what scripture teaches, what I just said, but I also believe we treat everybody with dignity. We can do and believe all those things at the same time,” he continued.

McBride’s response to what can only be described as a concerted attack on her dignity has been muted, saying that she hopes for “kindness.”

“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,” she wrote on X. “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. We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars.”

“The banning of trans people from women’s bathrooms in the Capitol represents the beginning of extreme anti-trans talking points brought to life at the federal level,” said Black trans woman Imara Jones, the CEO of TransLash Media. “This process will gain steam in January and beyond, as Republicans make good on their campaign promise to target trans people and erase them from public life.”

Update: McBride responded with a statement saying that she’s not in Congress “to fight about bathrooms.”

“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.”

Update: Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, called out Johnson in a statement.

“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 said.

“How will this even be enforced? 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. Republicans can’t even pass a Farm Bill or pass major appropriations bills, so they turn to using these cruel attacks to distract from their inability to govern and failure to deliver for the American people.”

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