Mike Johnson institutes transgender bathroom ban for U.S. House
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House Speaker Mike Johnson at a press conference on Nov. 19, 2024. Photo: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday he is banning transgender individuals from accessing bathrooms on the House side of the Capitol complex that correspond to their gender identity.
Why it matters: The move comes in response to an effort by GOP firebrands to restrict Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who is set to be the first transgender member of Congress, from using women's restrooms.
What he's saying: "All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings (like restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms) are reserved only for individuals of that biological sex," Johnson said in a statement.
- Johnson told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday: "Like all policies, it's enforceable. We have single-sex facilities for a reason. Women deserve women's only spaces."
- "We're not anti-anyone. We're pro-woman. I think it's an important policy for us to continue. It's always been, I guess, an unwritten policy, but now it's in writing," he added.
Zoom out: The statement comes after Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution to ban transgender women from the House's women's bathrooms.
- Mace pushed Johnson to include the measure, which charges the sergeant-at-arms with enforcing the ban, in the rules for the 119th House.
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told colleagues at a closed-door GOP conference meeting Tuesday that she might get into a "physical altercation" if forced to share a bathroom with trans women, according to sources in the room.
- Johnson noted in his statement that every House member's office has its own private bathroom and that "unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol."
The other side: McBride said in a statement that she is "not here to fight about bathrooms. 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," she added.
- Rep. Marc Pocan (D-Wisc.), the chair of the Equality Caucus, said he requested a meeting with Johnson to "discuss his bathroom ban and open his eyes to the reality that this policy is cruel [and] completely unenforceable."
Between the lines: McBride has been counseling colleagues to follow her lead in casting the bathroom effort as a distraction from GOP dysfunction, according to multiple lawmakers.
- Said one House Democrat: "She stressed that she sees this as a petty distraction and encouraged us to view it that way ... the work is her top priority."
- Those conversations were first reported by NOTUS.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.
