Incoming Congresswoman Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender person elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, posted a defiant social media post Wednesday in response to the House banning transgender people from using single-sex restrooms on Capitol Hill match their gender identity.
She posted to Bluesky a selfie taken in a women’s bathroom and said, “We’re all just people trying to pee in peace.”
Earlier in the day, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana, issued a statement “regarding facilities throughout the U.S. Capitol complex.”
Johnson said: “All sex facilities in the Capitol and House of Representatives office buildings – such as restrooms, locker rooms and locker rooms – are reserved for persons of that biological sex.”
He added: “It is important to note that each member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol. Women deserve the only space for women.”
McBride will be sworn in to represent Delaware in January after handily winning the seat in the election earlier this month after becoming the first openly transgender person elected to the Senate seat there in 2020.
She had initially dismissed the proposed restrictions, saying the argument was a far-right distraction from issues such as housing, health care and child care.
But on Wednesday, after Johnson’s announcement, McBride responded on a more personal level.
She captioned the photo of herself in front of the bathroom stalls with the following: “Here I am using a ladies room in North Carolina that I am technically not allowed to enter. They say I’m a pervert, they say I’m a pervert. man dressed as a woman. They say I’m a threat to their children. They say I’m confused, they say I’m dangerous. We are all just people trying to pee in peace.”
Moments later, she posted on Like all members, I will follow the rules set forth by Speaker Johnson, even if I do not agree with them…serving in the 119th Congress will be the honor of a lifetime, and I continue to look forward to serving my future colleagues on both sides from the aisle.”
On Monday, South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace had introduced a bill to ban transgender people, including members of Congress, officials and employees, from using single-sex restrooms and other facilities that correspond with their gender identity on Capitol Hill.
Mace told reporters that McBride “doesn’t belong in women’s spaces, women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, locker rooms, period, period” and called her a biological male, insisting McBride “doesn’t get a say,” CNN reported.
Mace’s bill comes as Republicans have attacked transgender people as part of a broader political culture war strategy, restricting the bathrooms they can use and the youth sports teams they can play on. Fourteen states currently have laws banning transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ rights group.
Donald Trump relied heavily on this type of politics during the presidential election campaign.
