U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) defended Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who is poised to become the first transgender member of Congress, after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) barred her from using women's bathrooms on the House side of the Capitol complex.
"There's no job I'm afraid to lose if it requires me to degrade anyone," he wrote on X. "We have a bathroom in my office that anybody is welcome to use, including Representative-elect Sarah McBride.
There’s no job I’m afraid to lose if it requires me to degrade anyone.
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) November 20, 2024
If that’s a defining issue for a voter, there will be a different candidate.
We have a bathroom in my office that anybody is welcome to use, including Representative-elect Sarah McBride. pic.twitter.com/Y8ZZbzFVq6
On Wednesday, Johnson said he is banning transgender individuals from accessing bathrooms on the House side of the Capitol complex that correspond to their gender identity, Axios reported.
"All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings (like restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms) are reserved only for individuals of that biological sex," Johnson said in a statement.
Responding to critics, Johnson told Capitol reporters, "We're not anti-anyone. We're pro-woman–It's always been, I guess, an unwritten policy, but now it's in writing," he said.
This development coincides with an effort led by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who introduced a resolution to ban transgender women from the House's women's bathrooms, responding to McBride's victory.
We support gay marriage, and voted for the Respect for Marriage Act twice.
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) November 20, 2024
However, if you think protecting women is discrimination, you are the problem. We don't care if you're trans, if you have balls we don't want you in the women's bathroom.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also voiced her support to the measure at a closed-door GOP meeting Tuesday, hinting that she could get into a "physical altercation" if forced to share a bathroom with trans women, according to sources in the room cited by Axios.
In response to Johnson's announcement, McBride dismissed the issue, stating she would "follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them." The newly elected House representative described the effort as a distraction and emphasized that she was not elected to "fight about bathrooms," but "for lower costs for families."
I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families. pic.twitter.com/bCuv7pIZBY
— Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) November 20, 2024
The move has been mostly deemed as symbolic as House members have private bathrooms in their offices and "unisex" restrooms are available throughout the Capitol. Critics described Mace as a "huge attention-getter" and responded with admiration to McBride's unbothered response.
Despite McBride's request to let the issue go, Rep. Marc Pocan (D-Wisc.), chair of the Equality Caucus, plans to meet with Johnson to address the "bathroom ban," which he described as a "cruel" and "completely unenforceable" policy that "opens the door for abuse, harassment, and discrimination in the halls of Congress."
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