Transgender people will not be permitted to use single-sex bathrooms that align with their gender identities near the House Chamber, under a policy from Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., that was renewed Friday.
The ban was included in a list of Johnson’s policies for the 119th Congress, which were reflected in the Congressional Record, a daily account of Congress’ proceedings. The policy was not officially included in the House rules package that passed Friday during the House’s first session.
The policy states that “all single-sex facilities—such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms—are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” according to the record of Friday’s proceedings.
The policy will be enforced by the sergeant-at-arms and applies to “all areas of the Capitol subject to the Speaker’s general control under clause 3 of rule I,” according to the Congressional Record. That includes the hall of the House, the corridors and passages in the part of the Capitol assigned to the House, and other unappropriated rooms in that part of the Capitol, according to the House rules.
“It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol,” Friday’s Congressional Record states.
The policy was initially introduced as a proposed addition to the House rules by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., in November as a direct response to the election of Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Del., who is the nation’s first openly trans member of Congress.
“I’m absolutely 100% gonna stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a women’s restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms,” Mace, who has repeatedly misgendered McBride, told reporters at the time. “I will be there fighting you every step of the way.”
Shortly after, Johnson said he supported Mace’s effort, saying, “Women deserve women’s only spaces.”
Mace told NBC News on Friday that she would reintroduce legislation to codify the bathroom policy in Congress, though she said it’s been House policy since Johnson’s comments in November.
In multiple statements, McBride has described the measure as an attempt to distract from more important issues, but she said she will follow Johnson’s rules “even if I disagree with them.”
“I always knew that there would be some members of the Republican caucus who would seek to use my service representing the greatest state in the Union in Congress as an opportunity for them to distract from the fact that they have absolutely no real policy solutions for the issues that actually plague this country,” McBride told The New Yorker. “I was not surprised that there was an effort to politicize an issue that no one truly cares about—what bathroom I use. I did think that it might wait until January. It happened a little earlier than I anticipated. I was still getting lost in the tunnels of the Capitol when we got the news that this was coming.”
A spokesperson for McBride declined additional comment regarding Johnson’s policy.
Republicans have increasingly leaned into anti-trans rhetoric in recent years and particularly during the election. President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters spent nearly $60 million on eight anti-trans network-TV ads, one of them in Spanish, between Sept. 19 and Nov. 1, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks political ad spending.
However, Trump appeared to downplay trans issues in an interview with Time magazine last month, saying he agreed with McBride that lawmakers should be focused on more important issues.
“I do agree with that. On that — absolutely,” he told Time. “I don’t want to get into the bathroom issue. Because it’s a very small number of people we’re talking about, and it’s ripped apart our country, so they’ll have to settle whatever the law finally agrees.”
Syedah Asghar contributed.
