Congress erupts over bill targeting new transgender member

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Axios

11 hours ago


Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) set off a firestorm on Capitol Hill with a bill to keep Sarah McBride, soon to be the first transgender member of Congress, from accessing the women's bathrooms at the Capitol.

Why it matters: The measure is not being immediately dismissed by Republican leadership, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) telling Axios, "We're going to talk about that. We're working on the issue."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), asked about the bill, told Axios: "Haven't seen it."

But other Democrats expressed fury at the effort: "The cruelty is the point," fumed Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), a co-chair of the Equality Caucus.

Driving the news: Mace's two-page resolution, first reported by Fox News, prohibits House members and staffers from "using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex."

The measure covers bathrooms in the Capitol and House offices, charging the House sergeant-at-arms with enforcing the prohibition.

Mace told reporters on Monday night: "Sarah McBride doesn't get a say in this. If you're a biological man, you shouldn't be in women's restrooms."

The other side: "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," McBride (D-Del.) said in a statement.

"We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars," she added.

Said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.): "This is not just bigotry, this is just plain bullying."

"Is that what we want the sergeant-at-arms to be doing when we had an attack on the freaking Capitol?" exclaimed Balint.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2024/11/19/nancy-mace-sarah-mcbride-transgender-bathroom

[pimpbot]

1. Sarah is right

Its a distraction. Unforunately the general public has fallen for it. "Boys in girls X" is the new wedge issue.

[NotHardly]

30. I'm waiting for the separate water fountains for gays and colored folks to return.

... oh, and the "No dogs or Irish" type stuff to make an appearance... then we will know that we have re-entered the early 19th Century.

[Vinca]

2. Becca Balint is right. The cruelty is the point. I don't think I've ever been in a ladies' room

that didn't have doors on the stalls. Every stall might be filled with a transgender woman but Nancy Mace's and she would be none the wiser.

[AZ8theist]

8. This is what I will never understand.....

I've never visited the ladies room, but I assumed they all had stalls. How would anyone know if a trans woman was even in there??

This bigotry is beyond stupid.

[kskiska]

40. Some men have crazy ideas of just what a ladies room looks like.

Women aren't walking around unclothed, and the stalls have doors. There's no nudity involved. No one would ever know if a trans-gender woman was there.

[Walleye]

3. I just posted about this in the Delaware forum. This is an insult to our whole state.

One transgender woman in Congress and they have to make this rule? Do they feel so threatened by her? No they just like picking on vulnerable people and using our Congress to do it. I’m pissed.

[maxsolomon]

23. do they feel threatened by her?

I'd say yes.

[Magoo48]

4. They are presenting us with a point of resistance.

The strength of the community of allies around this point, and the persistence of the ruckus required to stop the offensive fascist movements, at this place and around the nation in the following four years, must be maintained. Congress must employ the local grassroots anti fascist community for support.

[electric_blue68]

5. " "talk about it" " Pffttttt. Bigots!

[genxlib]

6. It isn't right to expect it of her

But if it were me, I would proceed to use the Men's room in spite.

And I would make a point of wandering in right behind every prim, moralizing prick there.

[AverageOldGuy]

7. Someone needs to introduce a rule . . .

. . . that stations a big, burly MALE Capitol Police officer at the door of every restroom used by Members and any Member trying to enter should drop their trousers, skirt, whatever for inspection before being allowed in. Would put a stop to this shit right away.

[SCantiGOP]

35. That won't do it

Could have had surgical alteration. You will need a Nurse to do genetic testing before each bathroom break.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. "We're working on the issue". No, Mikey, you're inventing an issue that

just isn't one. Mind your own damn business.

[Hope22]

10. Easy solution that chain stores have figured out long ago.

Individual restrooms marked Restroom! Propose the changes and expense of the project and take the money out of another House account that members will miss. Put their money where their mouths are. My guess is there are already Family Restrooms in the building that concerned members could use at this time. Let the moaners and groaners search out existing private toilets in the building and move on to real legislation and problem solving!

[generalbetrayus]

11. In college, back in the early 70s (!), I had occasion to use the restroom in my girlfriend's dorm without anyone

guarding the door, and on more than one occasion, women used the restroom in my dorm without anyone guarding the door, and these were not coed dorms. Get a grip, anti-trans people, we all survived those "horrible" experiences.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. My freshman year in college at UMASS in the late '70s

was when they were piloting a "co-ed" dorm with "co-ed" floors and bathrooms. In my case, since the dorm was a hi-rise, there was an "open layout" central core divided into a section with a set of toilet stalls and sinks and another section with shower stalls (that had solid doors).

It was an adjustment for sure but then anyone who grew up/lived in a "mixed" household normally didn't have separate "men's rooms" and "women's rooms" in their residences. And that is what makes this whole thing ridiculous.

[FakeNoose]

12. There's a simple solution: put one of these signs on every bathroom in the Capitol

[Joinfortmill]

17. Yup. Had my 1st experience with that in Europe

In 2015, I went into a public restroom in Paris. I was washing my hands when a dude walked out of the next stall and smiled at me. Stunned me, that's for sure. But, really, it was no big deal.

[Joinfortmill]

13. He's an ity, bity, whiny weiner.

[TBF]

14. We've got a felon set to run our government,

and the republicans are worried about who is using which bathroom?

[BOSSHOG]

15. Which bathroom should pedophiles and rapists use Nancy?

[Prairie Gates]

16. Reminder: The GOP House is burying a report that shows that the nominee for US Attorney General

paid for sex on numerous occasions, including with a minor.

Something to think about as they kvetch about an adult using a bathroom.

(PS: The US Senate is very likely to confirm a nominee for Secretary of Defense who, according to information published in the Washington Post, quite possibly drugged a woman and raped her.)

[BOSSHOG]

19. How bout whites only Nancy? How bout republicans only Nancy?

[DownriverDem]

20. Okay then

I would have a bucket and roll of toilet paper in my office. Wow are we in for a crazy hateful ride.

[Marthe48]

21. rwnj can all go to hell

I'm so sick of their utter low-life crap.

Once again, I wouldn't associate with asses like this in my personal life, and I rersent the hell out of people like that being in leadership positions. They don't know a damn thing about anything.

I'm old, straight, have acquaintances who I respect and support, because they are nice. Maybe knowing that I like them and don't make a big deal out of their private lives gives them a little dot of light in the evil of this regime.

[cpamomfromtexas]

22. So if it's such a big frickin deal. Have them

Put an “occupied by trans woman” at the door when she goes in. Then all the sissy republican women can wait outside until she leaves.

They just want to fuel hysteria

[maxsolomon]

24. Oddly, our office just announced that new signs are going up on the restrooms

saying that people can use the restroom of the gender they identify as.

[IronLionZion]

25. Tossing out red meat to pander to her idiotic MAGA base

I highly doubt Nancy Mace is impacted at all by what other people do in bathroom stalls behind closed doors. Bully

[rickford66]

26. Is a trans woman considered a voyeur ?

What about a lesbian ? They are sexually attracted to women I believe. As a male, who has done electrical work in ladies rooms and swimming dressing rooms while women were in there, I can see no way anyone should be bothered. There's plenty of privacy. Now, men's toilets and showers are a different story.

[mwooldri]

36. I was wondering about trans men.

Would a trans man have to use a women's bathroom because they were assigned female at birth? This rule makes absolutely no sense. A bathroom is a bathroom is a bathroom. You go in, do your business, and leave. That's it.

[rickford66]

37. The best solution is dedicated toilets for Christian youth counselers.

[HUAJIAO]

38. LOLOLOL!!!

[milestogo]

27. Can they establish a separate bathroom that just says "bigots" on the door?

[xocetaceans]

28. Independent of the merits, the Democrats will lose on this issue as just seen by its role in the recent election that...

...seems to have been so quickly forgotten. This is giving an evergreen gift to MAGA and the GOP to keep striking with. At this rate, the Democrats are in the process of solidifying MAGA gains in the next election, so don't count on relief after two years if the US even exists that long with these idiots in charge.

[NoMoreRepugs]

29. Put in Port-a-Potties - they've been gender neutral FOREVER.

[Martin68]

31. Deplorables.

[SCantiGOP]

32. South Carolina humbly apologizes

For Nancy Mace, Strom Thurmond, Little Lindsey, Fort Sumter — hell, for everything going back to John C Calhoun.

You should have let this state go in 1860 when you had the chance.

[Genevra]

33. Wagging the dog

Doesn't this smack of the GOPs typical distraction propaganda/dogwhistle for MAGAts when they've done something - Gaetz - that is appalling?

Maybe I'm wrong and it's just downright meanness toward a minority. Could be both?

[Botany]

34. A made up culture war "problem" where there wasn't one to begin with.

Vlad Putin would be proud of this move in order to cause social division and to distract
from real issues which the GOP doesn’t haven’t the slightest interest in doing anything
about.

I guarantee you that Rep. Mace has used the lady’s room with trans people before and
not a God Damn thing happened.

Btw bathrooms are where people go to shit, piss, blow their noses, fart (not on purpose
90% of the time) comb their hair, straighten up their cloves and wash up and if people are
seeing something sexual or interesting there that is a big “tell” they are a the real freak.
I betya Mace claims to be a good Christian too but likes to spank her partners as they are
on all 4s in a bathtub of warm oatmeal as she masturbates with a sex toy called “thumper.”

[Kali]

39. Is Ann Coulter her mentor?

Role model? Hateful skank club.