By FARNOUSH AMIRI
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson declared Wednesday that lawmakers and staff will have to use the restroom corresponding with their biological sex, a statement directed at Sarah McBride, the first transgender person to be elected to Congress, months before she is set to arrive on Capitol Hill.
“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,” the Louisiana Republican said. “Women deserve women’s only spaces.”
The statement comes a day after Johnson was questioned on the issue and emphasized the need to “treat all persons with dignity and respect.” He also acknowledged that ”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.”
A resolution to restrict McBride’s access to women’s restrooms was introduced Monday by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who pledged to fight to “keep men out of women’s spaces.” Mace said the bill was aimed specifically at McBride, who was elected to the House this month from Delaware.
In response, McBride called the effort a way to “distract from the real issues facing this country.”
“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families,” the incoming member said.
She added, “Like all members, I will follow the rules outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them.”
Referring to transgender people by the sex they were assigned at birth rather than by the gender they identify as is a tactic often used by opponents of transgender rights. The larger debate over whether transgender people should be allowed to use the bathrooms that align with their gender identity has been prevalent across the U.S. and became a focal point of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign.
At least 11 states have adopted laws barring transgender girls and women from girls and women’s bathrooms at public schools, and in some cases other government facilities.
Democrats have called the GOP campaign against McBride as bullying. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., said Tuesday that Mace’s comments are “absolutely ignorant.”
“There’s no statistic anywhere that any trans person commits any crimes at any higher rates that anyone else, so I don’t know where her worry is from,” Sorenson, who is gay, said.
McBride is coming to Congress next year after spending years building a national profile as an LGBTQ+ activist and raising more than $3 million in campaign contributions from around the country. She became the first openly transgender person to address a major party convention in the United States in 2016, when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.