From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know! 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 want.