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By Aila Slisco
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Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace has filed a bill seeking to ban transgender women from using women's bathroom at the U.S. Capitol just before the arrival of the first openly transgender member of Congress.
Delaware State Senator Sarah McBride, who is transgender, made history when she was elected to represent her state in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month. Her win arrived despite conservative politicians campaigning on rolling back transgender rights and fostering a political climate that has become increasingly hostile toward LGBTQ+ people.
Mace, of South Carolina, appears to be seeking to welcome McBride to Washington by banning her from using the women's bathroom, filing a bill on Monday that would ban members of Congress and other House staff from using facilities that correspond to their gender identity only if they are transgender, according to The Hill.
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The House sergeant-at-arms would reportedly be responsible for enforcing the ban. A copy of the bill shared by Axios shows that bathrooms would be divided along the lines of "biological sex," although it is unclear what constitutes "biological" or how sex would be verified before people enter the bathrooms.
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Newsweek reached out for comment to the offices of Mace and McBride via email on Monday night.
"Letting biological men in our spaces is not only an invasion of privacy. It puts our safety at risk too," Mace wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in response to a post on the bill from Ian Miles Cheong, a Malaysian right-wing influencer who frequently comments on American politics.
"McBride, a biological male, does not get a say in women's private spaces," Mace wrote in an additional X post specifically targeting the incoming congresswoman.
The House Judiciary GOP account later argued in a post that the bill should not be "controversial" because Mace was merely "introducing a resolution to keep men from using women's restrooms in the U.S. Capitol," conspicuously referring to transgender women as "men."
Mace responded to the post by arguing that her bill was "common sense for women's safety."
The available evidence does not support the notion that transgender women pose an increased threat to safety in bathrooms. Transgender people are several times more likely to be the victims of violent crimes than those who are not transgender.
Polling suggests Americans are broadly in favor of protecting transgender people from discrimination but divided on specific policies.
A Pew Research Center survey of 10,188 U.S. adults in May 2022 found that around eight in ten said there was discrimination against transgender people and a majority said they should be protected from discrimination in "jobs, housing and public spaces."
Around four in ten said transgender people should be required to use public bathrooms "that match the sex they were assigned at birth."
In a statement shared to X, McBride appeared to acknowledge that the legislation seemingly targeted her arrival, while calling on future colleagues to display "kindness" when she joins them at the Capitol.
"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," McBride wrote.
"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," she added. "We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars."
Update, 11/19/24, 7:40 a.m. ET: This story was updated to include Mace's full quotes and with additional background information.
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