After avoiding a reporter's question on the topic Tuesday, then moving closer to a policy at a hasty press conference, Mike Johnson clarified Wednesday that men’s and women’s restrooms on the Capitol grounds are for biological men and biological women – and not the opposing sex.
The announcement, which dropped Wednesday morning, states that that restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms on Capitol Hill are "reserved for individuals of that biological sex."
The unspoken dilemma for Speaker Johnson is Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, a man who identifies as a woman, who is making history as the first openly transgender member of the U.S. House.
Johnson was pressed in his Tuesday press conference to answer whether McBride is a man or a woman. He declined. Finally, a full day later, he took a firm stance with the new policy. It states:
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. It is important to note that each member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol. Women deserve women’s only spaces.
Before announcing the new policy, Johnson chose his words carefully when a reporter asked him if Rep.-elect McBride is a man or a woman.
"Look, I'm not going to get into this. We welcome all new members with open arms who are duly elected representatives of the people," he said Tuesday. "I believe it's a...command that we treat all persons with dignity and respect, and we will. And I'm not going to engage in...silly debates about this."
Johnson went on to state there are concerns about the use of restrooms and locker rooms, which is an issue Congress has never had to address before, he said.
House Speaker Johnson wasn't just feeling pressure from the new lawmaker from Delaware. He was also catching heat from a female Republican lawmaker, a real one, named Rep. Nancy Mace.
Mace introduced a resolution Monday that would require all House members, officers and employees to use restrooms assigned for their biological sex. She also went scorched-earth on the topic, defending the resolution in Capitol Hill interviews and in social media posts.
"Is this effort in response to Congresswoman McBride coming to Congress?" a reporter asked Mace.
"Yes, and absolutely, and then some," Mace replied. "I'm not going to stand for a man, someone with a penis, in the women's locker room. That's not okay."
At a second press conference, Johnson was asked to comment again but remained steadfast in his refusal to discuss his plans for McBride and the ladies’ room.
"I just told you what I'm going to say about the issue. I'm not going to engage in this," he stated. "We don't look down upon anyone. We treat everybody with dignity and respect. That's a principle that I've pursued my whole life. And we will take care of this, you know, issue – a first impression for Congress – as we will any other thing. We will provide the appropriate accommodation for every member of Congress."
'I love following the science'
On Wednesday, before Johnson’s announcement, Mace, the first female graduate of The Citadel, the military college of South Carolina, upped the ante.
“You thought threatening me would silence me?” she wrote to the audience at X. “No. I just doubled down and filed a new bill to protect women and girls across the entire country on all federal property everywhere.”
Among Mace’s rapid-fire responses after Johnson’s new policy announcement were: “Real women won,” “I love following the science,” and “It’s great to see real men standing with real women.”
McBride (pictured at right) has responded on X saying Mace’s proposal is a “blatant attempt from far-right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing.”
On the other side of the issue, the freshman lawmaker is a hero to Democrats and to LGBT activists for winning a seat in Congress. McBride, 34, has been "out" as transgender since childhood. As a teen and young adult, McBride was involved in politics, including interning in the White House during the Obama administration. President Biden wrote the foreword to McBride's book.
Meanwhile, Mace’s feed at X remains a steady stream of posts and responses on the topic.
In her video posted Tuesday she said, “The radical Left is calling me an extremist for being a feminist fighting to protect the rights of women and girls. If being a feminist makes me an extremist or bigot or monster, I am totally here for it.”
Before his Wednesday statement, Johnson was ripped on social media. John Daniel Davidson, senior editor at The Federalist, called Johnson’s leadership “worthless” in a Tuesday morning post.
“McBride is a man is the answer @SpeakerJohnson was too cowardly and corrupt to state plainly,” he wrote.
The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles summarized the fight Speaker Johnson was facing. “There's no avoiding the Tim McBride fight, Republicans," he wrote. "Either you let him into the women's bathroom and implicitly embrace the preposterous ideology of transgenderism, or you tell him he can't strut into the ladies' room, and the press calls you mean. Those are the only options.”
Johnson was almost there on Tuesday
Later Tuesday, Johnson seemed on the edge of banning McBride and other biological males from House and Capitol restrooms but didn’t quite take the final step.
“I was asked a question this morning at the leadership gaggle and rejected the premise because the answer is so obvious,” he said. “For anybody who doesn’t know my well-established position on this issue let me be unequivocally clear. A man is a man, and a woman is a woman, and a man cannot become a woman. That’s what scripture teaches.
“I also believe that we treat everybody with dignity. We can do and believe all those things at the same time,” he said.
