Speaker Johnson smiled and said the House would find a way to treat every person in Congress with dignity while still finding a way to enforce Nancy Mace’s proposed bathroom ban for trans people.
The proposed ban would apply to bathrooms in House office buildings, changing rooms and locker rooms, and would mean transgender women would not be permitted to use women’s restrooms.
Under House rules, the Speaker has “general control” of facilities in the chamber, allowing leeway to enforce a ban.
Johnson’s remarks came on Wednesday, Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to memorialize trans people who died due to anti-trans violence.
All of this nonsense was triggered by Nancy Mace, who went off the rails to single out incoming freshman Delaware Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride.
Mace tweeted a statement saying she had “filed a new bill to protect women and girls across the entire country on all federal property everywhere,” and attached a copy of it.
Mace’s attacks on Sarah McBride landed with the expected outrage that Republicans have exploited with their culture wars on marginalized people.
Democrats can always be expected to stand up for the rights of all people, which is of course the decent thing to do.
Republicans can always be expected to put Democrats in the box of exclusively being inclusive, leading to statements by Republicans like Speaker Johnson belittling Democrats, saying they are “not going to engage in silly debates about this,” as if it were Democrats and not Republicans who are so obsessed with trans rights that they can’t stop thinking about what genitals might be in the next stall.
Lather, rinse, and repeat.
Sarah McBride apparently has seen this act before, and recognized the playbook.
And she delivered a dignified, professional response to the dog whistle.
