U.S. House speaker institutes bathroom ban aimed at Delaware’s transgender Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride

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Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, has introduced legislation that would bar transgender women from using women’s restrooms and other facilities on federal property.

It comes just a few days after she filed a resolution intended to institute a bathroom ban in parts of the U.S. Capitol complex that she said was targeted at Delaware Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride, a Democrat, who First State voters elected to serve as the first openly transgender person in Congress just two weeks ago.

Mace said to reporters Monday that McBride, who she misgendered during her comments, didn’t “belong in women’s spaces, bathrooms and locker rooms.”

While not specifically mentioning Mace’s bills, House Speaker Mike Johnson issued a statement Wednesday dictating that House policy in January would ban transgender women from using facilities — like bathrooms and locker rooms — that do not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.

“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 said in a statement. It was not clear how the policy would be enforced.

“Each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol,” he added.

Mace’s resolution, which she said she wanted to be included in the rules package for the next Congress, requires the House sergeant at arms to enforce the ban.

The bill would restrict members, staff and others from using single-sex facilities such as bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms “other than those corresponding to their biological sex.”

McBride issued a statement Wednesday afternoon that she wasn’t elected to 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,” she said.

McBride said she would follow the speaker’s rule, although she disagrees with it.

Johnson said Tuesday all people would be treated with dignity and respect.

“This is an issue that Congress has never had to address before, and we’re going to do that in deliberate fashion with member consensus on it, and we will accommodate the needs of every single person,” he said. “That’s all I’m going to say about that.”

In a statement, Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said Johnson was bigoted against McBride and Capitol transgender staffers.

“This new cruel and discriminatory policy has nothing to do with helping the American people or addressing their priorities–it’s all about hurting people,” the statement said. “Speaker Johnson has proven yet again that the Republican majority is more focused on culture wars than on the needs of the country.”

McBride posted Monday on X in an apparent response to Mace’s rhetoric that “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 also called it “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 said lawmakers should focus instead on issues like the cost of products and services, including housing, health care and child care.

McBride won Lisa Blunt Rochester’s House seat earlier this month. Blunt Rochester was elected to replace longtime Sen. Tom Carper in her own historic race. McBride’s run for national office comes at a time when anti-trans rhetoric has been on the rise across the country.

On Wednesday, Blunt Rochester wrote on X, “Sarah McBride has been an effective legislator who has spent her entire career fighting for Delaware.”

“I, along with the hundreds of thousands of Delawareans who cast their ballots for Sarah, agree that our focus should be on delivering for the American people and not distractions,” she wrote.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman also voiced support for McBride online, saying, “We have a bathroom in my office that anybody is welcome to use, including Representative-elect Sarah McBride.”

McBride didn’t focus on making history as the first transgender person elected to Congress, preferring instead to focus on her accomplishments in the state Senate and promises to bring down costs for families.

But President-elect Donald Trump and other politicians campaigned on promises to roll back LGBTQ protections. The Trump campaign also spent millions highlighting Vice President Kamala Harris’ past support for transgender rights.

Republican legislatures in several states passed bills this year to ban transgender students from using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

When she cast her ballot earlier on Nov. 5, McBride said she expected some conservatives to deliberately try to stir up controversy if she were elected.

“Those are Republican members of Congress who can’t work with any Democrat and can barely work with their own Republican colleagues,” she said. “So I will find the Republicans who are willing and able to roll up their sleeves and work with anyone and I’m ready to work with them.”