Dec 17, 2024; Washington, DC, USA; Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) during a press conference on Tuesday, Dec. 17 on Capitol Hill
The House’s new rules package doesn’t include a measure limiting transgender people’s restroom usage at the Capitol, as Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) had pushed for late last year and said she was promised would be included. Instead, the rule was slipped into the January 3 edition of the Congressional Record, Advocate reports.
The policy, mentioned on page 26 of the dense, 87-page document, says that access to all gendered facilities at the Capitol complex will be based on “biological sex.” It says that the policy will be enforced by the sergeant-at-arms. The Congressional Record doesn’t explain how “biological sex” will be defined.
Related:
The inclusion of the policy in the Congressional Record without a vote from the House means that it was enacted with Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) own authority governing Capitol facilities, not the House’s power to pass its own rules.
Insights for the LGBTQ+ community
Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
The Congressional Record says that members of Congress have access to a private restroom in their offices and that some restrooms are designated unisex at the Capitol complex. Transgender and nonbinary people who visit or work at the Capitol might still have trouble accessing facilities.
Shortly after the 2024 elections and after it became clear that Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) would be the first out trans member of Congress, Rep. Mace introduced a resolution to ban trans people from using the facilities associated with their genders at the Capitol complex. Trans people have been working at the Capitol and visiting it for decades without incident and McBride has a private restroom in her office, so Mace’s rule would mainly have the effect of making it harder for trans staffers to work at the Capitol and for trans people to visit the Capitol and participate in democracy.
Johnson announced in November that restroom usage would be determined by “biological sex,” but he didn’t provide any more details about his policy. Mace said in November that Johnson told her that her anti-trans language would be included in the rules resolution, which passed the House last week without any language about restroom usage.
“I talked to him multiple times yesterday, but he assured me it would be in the House rules package,” she told the HuffPost at the time.
LGBTQ+ advocates denounced the rule.
“This cruel and discriminatory policy has nothing to do with helping the American people or addressing their priorities; it’s all about hurting people,” HRC’s Kelley Robinson said. “It targets not just Congresswoman McBride, but all trans and nonbinary people who work and visit the Capitol — public servants who have been working in the Capitol for years but are now the subject of cynical political games. Speaker Johnson has proven yet again that the Republican majority is more focused on culture wars than on the needs of the country.”
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.
