WASHINGTON ― House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Wednesday that transgender lawmakers and staff would be barred from bathrooms not corresponding to their “biological sex.”
“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. “Women deserve women’s only spaces.”
Johnson’s decree followed an uproar among Republicans over incoming Democratic lawmaker Sarah McBride, who will become the first-ever transgender member of Congress next year after winning Delaware’s sole district this month.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) demanded that Johnson disallow McBride from using women’s bathrooms and gym facilities in the Capitol, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) even suggested she would physically fight McBride for using the ladies’ room.
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Johnson declined to commit to doing what Mace wanted on Tuesday, but he nevertheless went out of his way to tell reporters that he believed “a man is a man and a woman is a woman, and a man cannot become a woman.”
In his announcement on Wednesday, Johnson noted that members of the House have their own bathrooms in their offices.
“It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol,” he said.
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) criticized Republicans for bullying a fellow lawmaker.