‘Prejudice and History We’re Very Familiar With’: McBride Banned from Women’s Restrooms
Speaker’s action came on Transgender Day of Remembrance
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s move to ban the first transgender woman elected to Congress from using women’s bathrooms smacks of the same dehumanizing historical oppression that kept Black women segregated for decades.
That’s according to a range of voices across the political spectrum, reacting to news that Rep-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del) will be banned from women's restrooms on the House side of the US Capitol.
Johnson’s decision came instead of the House vote Republican Rep Nancy Mace, of South Carolina, wanted on her resolution to bar McBride from women's restrooms.
His move on Wednesday came as transgender people around the world observed Transgender Day of Remembrance, a solemn day annually to memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transphobia.
McBride released a statement saying that she would abide by Johnson’s rule.
“Like all members, I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them,” she said in her statement.
Although McBride acquiesced, others quickly pointed out the bigotry of Johnson, Mace and their allies.
“What I think is, for me, is really important to remember in this moment, particularly with this Mace moment and just the overall tenor of the anti-trans backlash that we’ve been seeing in the media over the past several years, is that we have to be able to hold a couple of things that are maybe contradictory at the same time,” said Laverne Cox, the popular actress and trans rights advocate. “How wonderful that the citizens of Sarah McBride’s district that we want you to represent us in Congress and send her and have her come make history as the first trans person to serve in Congress. And then that happened in an environment where over $215 million was spent in anti-trans ads, an insane amount of money to stigmatize and dehumanize transgender people.
“So right now what I’m most interested in is the state and the condition of trans people. What this does is it emboldens people who are anti-trans who want to be bigoted to bully” others, she added.
What anti-trans bathroom bans like Johnson’s most resembles is the shameful chapter of US history in which Black and white Americans were segregated in bathroom use, according to Margaret Hoover, the political commentator and great-granddaughter of Republican President Herbert Hoover.
“When you think about sort of desegregation of the South, the integration of the South, it was about having — part of this was having colored bathrooms and white bathrooms. And when you look at the integration of the military and, frankly, ‘Don‘t ask, don‘t tell’ was about gay soldiers in the showers. And women coming into office buildings when women joined the workforce, there were no bathrooms for women to go in these office buildings of these law firms, white-shoe law firms and the Stock Exchange,” she said. “Bathrooms have always been at the forefront of civil rights battles, and it is the most basic human function. Everybody has to use the restroom.
“And so this idea that you can pervert this and to make this most basic thing that everybody does into something that is contorted and perverted, is wrong, but is tied to a prejudice and a history that we are very familiar with,” Hoover added. “And if you see it that way, you can begin to see people as people and figure out how to — how to transcend this sort of erroneous problem.”
Please support our work…
Please subscribe…