United States Congress / Wikimedia Commons (Left), Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) / X (Right)
CV NEWS FEED // House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, affirmed that during the incoming 119th Congress, House lawmakers will use the bathrooms that correspond to their respective true sexes.
The decree by the recently re-nominated speaker clears up confusion regarding which bathroom male Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-DE, born Timothy McBride, will use.
McBride is a man who claims to be a woman and has been celebrated as the first “transgender” member of Congress by pro-LGBTQ media outlets and organizations.
Johnson’s announcement was a major victory for Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC, who had been for the previous few days spearheading an effort to keep males out of women’s spaces on the taxpayer-funded Capitol grounds.
“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,” Johnson wrote in a statement Wednesday.
“It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol,” the speaker clarified. “Women deserve women’s only spaces.”
In a statement of his own, McBride indicated that he will abide by Johnson’s decision and not enter the women’s bathrooms on Capitol Hill.
“I am not here to fight about bathrooms,” McBride wrote. “I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families. Like all members, I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them.”
Mace commended the congressman-elect’s decision to comply with the speaker’s order.
“Sarah McBride’s promise to abide by Speaker Johnson’s policy is a step toward acknowledging the rights of women everywhere,” Mace wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday afternoon, “something we’ll continue to demand without compromise.”
Johnson had told reporters on Tuesday: “Let me be unequivocally clear. A man is a man and a woman is a woman. And a man cannot become a woman.”
“I also believe that we treat everybody with dignity,” he added.
Also on Tuesday, CatholicVote reported that Mace had the day before filed a two-page resolution “in the House of Representatives that would protect women from having to share women’s restrooms with men who claim to be ‘transgender’ females.”
Mace wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday evening, “Biological men do not belong in private women’s spaces. Period. Full stop. End of story.”
McBride fired back at Mace, claiming on X that his soon-to-be colleague’s resolution 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.”
The congressman-elect further accused the congresswoman of “manufacturing culture wars.”
Mace replied to her pro-“transgender” critics who claim she is a “threat” on X Tuesday morning.
“You better believe it,” the Republican lawmaker wrote. “And I will shamelessly call you out for putting women and girls in harm’s way.”
