On 5 November, the United States held its 2024 elections. The election for the office of US Representative for the state of Delaware’s at-large Congressional district was won by Democratic candidate Sarah McBride, who is a trans woman (McBride, 2012).
On 16 November, Nancy Mace, the Republican US Representative from South Carolina’s 1st Congressional district, introduced House Resolution 1579. If adopted, HR Res 1579 would:
- bar trans people from using restrooms that do not correspond to their assigned sex in either the United States Capitol, where Congress meets, or the adjacent House Office Buildings;
- require the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives to enforce the ban.
Mace has confirmed that HR Res 1579 is aimed specifically at McBride (Alfaro & Sotomayor, 2024). It ought to be noted that McBride is as yet only a Representative-elect; for the provisions contained in the resolution to affect McBride, the text will need to be reintroduced and passed after the new, 119th Congress, to which McBride has been elected, is sworn in (Alfaro & Sotomayor, op cit) on 3 January 2025. As the Republican Party won control of the Presidency, Senate, and House of Representatives at the 2024 elections, there will be no impediment to this occurring; it will simply not be this resolution itself which effects it.
HR Res 1579 represents a significant shift right from Mace’s previous position, which was still anti-trans but to a less absurd degree. In Mace’s state, South Carolina, redistricting is carried out on an openly partisan basis by the state legislature. The Guardian notes (Levine, 2024) that between the 2022 midterms and the 2024 general elections, a redistricting took effect which redrew Mace’s district to remove a large number of Black voters and make it a significantly safer Republican seat. This was effected by the Supreme Court of the United States’ ruling in Alexander v South Carolina NAACP, issued 23 May of this year.
So far, those who have made comments in support of HR Res 1579 include:
- the American Principles Project, a fascist pressure group (Devlin, 2024);
- US Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene (Republican, GA–14) (Garcia, 2024);
- Megyn Kelly, right-wing podcaster (Jerkovich, 2024).
Those who have made comments against HR Res 15791 include:
- US Rep Becca Balint (Democratic, VT—AL) (Alfaro & Sotomayor, op cit)
- US Rep Katherine Clark (Democratic, MA–05), House Democratic Whip (Alfaro & Sotomayor, op cit);
- US Rep Robert Garcia (Democratic, CA–42) (Quinn, 2024);
- US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democratic, NY—14) (Elordi, 2024);
- the Human Rights Campaign (Levine, op cit);
- McBride (Warburton, 2024);
- US Rep Eric Sorensen (Democratic, IL—17) (Alfaro & Sotomayor, op cit);
- US Rep Hakeem Jeffries (Democratic, NY–08), House Democratic Leader (Quinn, op cit);
- US Rep Dean Phillips (Democratic, MN–03) (Pandolfo, 2024).
Those who have refused to comment on HR Res 1579 when asked include:
- US Rep Mike Johnson (Republican, LA–04), Speaker of the House (Quinn, 2024). However, Rep Greene (above) indicated Speaker Johnson had previously committed to her and the House Republican Conference that McBride would not be allowed to use the women’s restrooms on Capitol Hill (Beavers, 2024), suggesting Johnson supports the bill and is simply dissembling about it.
Footnotes
- This should, unfortunately, not be construed to mean they will actually vote against it (including McBride herself). We are, after all, talking about the Democratic Party. ↩︎
References
Alexander v South Carolina NAACP (US, Docket No 22–807, 23 May 2024).
Alfaro, M., & Sotomayor, M. (2024, November 19). Rep. Mace introduces measure to ban trans women from Capitol’s female bathrooms. The Washington Post (Nash Holdings, LLC); Archive Today. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
Beavers, O. [@Olivia_Beavers] (2024, November 20). Speaker Mike Johnson told the GOP conference today that transgender women won’t be allowed to use the women’s bathrooms in … [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
Devlin, B. (2024, November 19). Conservative group encourages GOP House to ban trans Rep-elect from using women’s facilities. The Daily Signal (Daily Signal Media Group, Inc.); Archive Today. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
Elordi, M. (2024, November 20). Mike Johnson says [trans women] can’t use women’s bathrooms in Capitol: report. The Daily Wire (Bentkey Ventures, LLC); Archive Today. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
Garcia, E. (2024, November 19). MTG supports Nancy Mace’s controversial trans bathroom ban in Congress: ‘That’s what this election was all about’. The Independent (Independent Digital News & Media Ltd). Retrieved 20 November 2024.
Jerkovich, K. (2024, November 20). Speaker Mike Johnson makes it clear ‘a man cannot become a woman’. The Daily Wire (Bentkey Ventures, LLC); Archive Today. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
Levine, S. (2024, November 20). Republican bathroom bill targets Congress’s first transgender member. The Guardian (The Scott Trust); Archive Today. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
Mace, N. [@RepNancyMace] (2024, November 19). Biological men do not belong in private women’s spaces. Period. Full stop. End of story. [Tweet]. Twitter (X Corp.); Archive Today. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
McBride, S. (2012, May). Op-ed: The real me. The Eagle (American University). Retrieved 20 November 2024.
Pandolfo, C. (2024, November 19). Mace faces backlash over effort to ban new transgender member of Congress from women’s bathrooms. Fox News Digital (Fox Corporation); Archive Today. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
Quinn, M. (2024, November 19). Nancy Mace seeks to bar transgender women from using female bathrooms on Capitol Hill after first trans member elected to House. CBS News (Paramount Global); Archive Today. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
Warburton, M. (2024, November 20). Republican bill to restrict first transgender member of Congress draws criticism. Reuters (Thomson Reuters Corporation); Archive Today. Retrieved 20 November 2024.