Nancy Mace has filed a bill seeking to ban transgender women from using women's bathroom at the U.S. Capitol just before the arrival of the first openly transgender member of Congress.Delaware State Senator Sarah McBride, who is transgender, made history when she was elected to represent her state in the U.S.
House of Representatives earlier this month. Her win arrived despite conservative politicians campaigning on rolling back transgender rights and fostering a political climate that has become increasingly hostile toward LGBTQ+ people.Mace, of South Carolina, appears to be seeking to welcome McBride to Washington by banning her from using the women's bathroom, filing a bill on Monday that would ban members of Congress and other House staff from using facilities that correspond to their gender identity only if they are transgender, according to The Hill.The House sergeant-at-arms would reportedly be responsible for enforcing the ban.
A copy of the bill shared by Axios shows that bathrooms would be divided along the lines of "biological sex," although it is unclear what constitutes "biological" or how sex would be verified before people enter the bathrooms.Newsweek reached out for comment to the offices of Mace and McBride via email on Monday night."Letting [transgender women] in our spaces is not only an invasion of privacy. It puts our safety at risk too," Mace wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in response to a post on the bill from Ian Miles Cheong, a Malaysian right-wing influencer who frequently comments on American politics."McBride, a [transgender woman], does not get a say in women's private spaces," Mace wrote in an additional X post specifically targeting the incoming congresswoman.The House Judiciary GOP account later argued in a post that the bill should not be "controversial" because Mace was merely "introducing a resolution to keep men from using women's restrooms in the U.S.
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