By Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis–
We were shocked and horrified two weeks ago when Republican provocateur and Congressmember Nancy Mace launched a transphobic broadside against Sarah McBride, who in January will make history as the first transgender member of Congress. Even before McBride’s swearing in, Mace introduced a House resolution to bar her soon-to-be colleague and indeed all trans and gender nonbinary people from using bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity at the U.S. Capitol and House office buildings.
Openly LGBTIQ Representative Becca Balint from Vermont immediately called out Mace’s brazen attack as “petty” and “hateful,” adding that there was “no bottom to the cruelty” of such Republican firebrands. Conservative Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson initially showed a degree of restraint in responding to Mace’s attack. Although Johnson parroted baseless assertions about the nature of gender, he declared: “We don’t look down upon anyone. We treat everybody with dignity and respect.” And he promised that Congress would act “in a deliberate fashion with member consensus on it, and we will accommodate the needs of every single person.”
The next day, Johnson quickly changed his tune, proclaiming a new written rule that: “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.” Jettisoned overnight were acting in a “deliberate fashion” and seeking consensus, much less input from House members, congressional employees, and countless visitors to the Capitol. Treating everyone with dignity and respect gave way to blind transphobia.
The new House rule, of course, cannot withstand critical scrutiny for many reasons. Did Johnson and Mace even consider that the new rule would mean that trans men with completely traditional masculine appearance will be using the women’s room?
Very tellingly, neither Johnson nor Mace cited even a single incident of an actual problem with bathroom usage ever having taken place at the Capitol in their urgent pronouncements about the issue. That’s because innumerable trans and gender nonconforming people have already been using bathrooms in the Capitol (and indeed all over the country) without incident and without most people even knowing it.
Openly gay Representative Mark Pocan, chair of the LGBTQI+ Congressional Equality Caucus, highlighted who will really suffer—trans and gender nonconforming people—because the “cruel unnecessary” ban “puts countless staff, interns, and visitors to the United States Capitol at risk.” He asked scornfully: “How will [the ban] even be enforced? Will the Sergeant at Arms post officers in bathrooms? Will everyone who works at the Capitol have to carry around their birth certificate or undergo a genetic test?”
How should our community respond to these attacks? The issue is not going away. In January, the newly constituted House will vote on rules for the next two years. Mace has filed legislation to impose a trans bathroom ban in all federal buildings and federally funded schools. We know that anti-LGBTIQ Republican forces have other attacks in the offing, too.
We have appreciated some of McBride’s own responses to date, but some of what she has said has disappointed us. We agree with McBride’s characterization of the ban as “mean-spirited” and “a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract.” She rightly pointed out that there was no issue about bathroom use at the Capitol until a “small Republican conference majority decided to get headlines and to manufacture a crisis.” We admire the aspiration McBride articulated: “I would like my grace to contrast with the grandstanding that we’re seeing right now. I would like my approach of respecting everyone to contrast with the disrespect that we are seeing right now.”
But we were taken aback when, within hours of Johnson’s proclaiming the ban, McBride announced that she, in fact, would comply with it. In explaining her position, McBride declared, in part, “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans.” Our immediate reaction was: What about trans Delawareans?
No LGBTIQ person seeks to fight about bathrooms, but when legislatures, government officials, and school boards take away our rights, we have to resist. We’re confident that, several years ago, trans student Gavin Grimm did not go to high school to fight about bathrooms. However, when his school district restricted his ability to use the restroom, the vulnerable 15-year-old stood up with extraordinary courage and grace and fought for himself and thereby trans students everywhere. Grimm’s lawsuit challenging the district’s actions went all the way to the 4th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, where he won a victory improving the lives of numerous trans youth.
McBride walked back some of her words when she told The Advocate the next day:
“I’m here to represent my constituents, including LGBTQ constituents,” which “means fighting for them” and “continuing to work to guarantee that the Capitol complex is safe for all staff, interns, and visitors.”
But three days later on CBS’ Face the Nation, McBride returned to her talking points, making no specific mention of her LGBTIQ constituents or the horrific real-world consequences of Republican anti-trans policies, such as denial of gender affirming care, devastating trans mental health outcomes, and anti-trans violence.
She further claimed that how she was “being treated does not matter.” But as the first trans member of Congress and one of 535 people empowered to craft our nation’s laws, McBride is now the human face of trans people in our government. How she is treated and how she responds to that treatment has immense importance. McBride stands on the shoulders of Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, the “screaming queens” who rioted at Compton’s Cafeteria, Gavin Grimm, and myriad other trans leaders and visionaries who came before her. McBride can draw on their inspiration to meet the moment.
As out Congressmember Balint said, “We have an obligation to push back. When we allow attacks on someone’s basic human dignity, we’re all made more cruel.”
It’s not too late. Now is the time for McBride, other trans and nonbinary elected officials, trans federal employees, trans activists, the Congressional LGBTQI+ Equality Caucus, and supporters and allies everywhere to map out effective new strategies and to collaborate together—and for all of us to join them.
John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney, together for over three decades, were plaintiffs in the California case for equal marriage rights decided by the California Supreme Court in 2008. Their leadership in the grassroots organization Marriage Equality USA contributed in 2015 to making same-sex marriage legal nationwide.
6/26 and Beyond
Published on December 5, 2024
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