Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Wednesday that transgender women are not permitted to use bathrooms in the Capitol that match their gender identity, taking a stance on the hot-button issue t…

Archive.today link

Some key excerpts:

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Wednesday that transgender women are not permitted to use bathrooms in the Capitol that match their gender identity

The policy […] will also apply to bathrooms in House office buildings, changing rooms and locker rooms.

Johnson’s statement — which was made on Transgender Day of Remembrance, recognized annually to memorialize trans people who died due to anti-trans violence — comes days after Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a bill to bar transgender women from facilities on Capitol Hill that match their gender identity, a response to the election earlier this month of Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.).

McBride blasted Mace’s legislation earlier this week, calling it “a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing.”

Mace was threatening to force a vote on the matter prior to Johnson’s decision to formally announce the new policy; the congresswoman wanted the terms to be included in the rules package for the 119th Congress and said she would force a vote on the bill if that did not come to fruition.

  • UrLogicFails@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
    41·
    1 month ago

    This is especially vile to announce on Transgender Day of Remembrance; but I have no doubt in my mind that it was intentional.

    This feels like a move made with the explicit purpose of hurting people as much as possible. (“The cruelty is the point.”)

    To my knowledge, there is no legal recourse for this, but I am not a lawyer, so I could be wrong…

    I know it likely won’t do much, but I do recommend calling your representatives. I asked mine to issue a statement saying that they will not be party to enforcing this rule. I hope they issue such a statement of solidarity soon 🤞

    • BertramDitore@lemm.eeEnglish
      10·
      1 month ago

      Time to put the Capitol Switchboard on speed dial, gonna be calling them a lot these next few years.

      For those who don’t know, here’s the switchboard number:

      202-224-3121

      Call, tell them where you live, and they’ll connect you to your representative’s constituent services. It’ll only take you a few minutes, but they keep track of every call. It matters.

      • UrLogicFails@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
        6·
        1 month ago

        I usually try to call my Representative and Senators during my commute. The only tricky part is remembering the bill numbers.

        I have the distinct impression I’m going to have something to say to them every day over the next four years…

    • millie@beehaw.orgEnglish
      22·
      1 month ago

      Busloads of trans men showing up to use the bathroom would actually probably be a pretty effective means of activism for policies like these.

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
        10·
        1 month ago

        I agree, but that’s also asking members of a group Republicans are already trying to marginalize to make themselves a visible target.

        I’d love to see it, but fully understand and respect trans men not wanting to expose themselves to hatred.

      • Buttons@programming.devEnglish
        8·
        1 month ago

        This is brilliant. If someone like in there photo wanted to hold a sign saying “Mike Johnson wants me to use the women’s bathroom”, it would cause waves.

        Maybe a less aggressive message like, “I just want to use the mens bathroom, where I’m comfortable, but Mike Johnson won’t let me”. Because it focuses on people just wanting to be left alone to go to the bathroom in peace.

        Or, best yet, have a transman that lifts and looks like they can snap Mike Johnson like a toothpick–have that transman catch up with Mike Johnson in the hallway and ask him why he has to use the women’s bathroom. Instant viral.

        • SteevyT@beehaw.org
          7·
          1 month ago

          If someone like in there photo wanted to hold a sign saying “Mike Johnson wants me to use the women’s bathroom the same bathroom as your daughter”, it would cause waves.

          Using their own tactics against them with that little change.

          • Buttons@programming.devEnglish
            4·
            1 month ago

            Yeah. It would be so satisfying.

            But in the long run in think engaging in this bogus cultural war issue only hurts trans people. They might try to stop them from using bathrooms at all or something crazy.

            That’s why I say de-escalating and sending a message of “I’m just a person that wants to mind my own business and be comfortable” might be better than a message of “your stupid and your policies don’t make sense”. Both are true, I don’t know which is more effective.

    • UrLogicFails@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      11·
      1 month ago

      I wonder what kind of reaction you would get from a Republican Representative if you told one that Speaker Johnson is violating women’s spaces by making a rule that forces men to use the ladies restroom and that it makes you very uncomfortable.

      I do worry that could backfire and they might just make a secondary rule punishing trans men, though…

  • viking@beehaw.org
    22·
    1 month ago

    Mike Johnson recently said that his world view is the same as what’s in the Bible. I hope one day he realizes with horror that he’s been a very hateful person, and that even the Bible he says he follows would condemn this kind of cruelty. He and the Republicans think they’re doing “God’s work”, but they’re not. At all.

    • masterofn001@lemmy.ca
      16·
      1 month ago

      Mike is a member of the New Apostolic Reformation

      A group whose goal is to usher in the second coming by accelerating the end of the world. Aka Armageddon.

      Other very notable members include:

      • Mike Flynn (the traitor)
      • Lauren Boebert & MTG
      • Roger Stone
      • Charlie Kirk
      • Justice Samuel Alito
      • UrLogicFails@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
        11·
        1 month ago

        I don’t think the Old Testament is particularly anti-trans either. Most Republicans use the Bible as a way to launder their own hateful views, but I doubt if they’re even remotely religious at all.

        • Chris Remington@beehaw.orgM
          17·
          1 month ago

          I don’t think the Old Testament is particularly anti-trans either.

          Nowhere in the Bible is sexuality (as we now it today) nor gender, etc addressed. I know this because I’ve been reading biblical scholarship for over thirty years. I am, also, the founder of Reddit’s AskBibleScholars.

          Please, think about this carefully. It would be like asking what the Bible thinks of Philips-head screwdrivers.

  • frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io
    12·
    1 month ago

    I don’t understand. I’ve been sharing public women’s bathrooms with biological males all my life because their caretakers use them when they need to pee. Those brats peek and crawl under the doors and walls frequently and all we can do is be annoyed because it’s part of life with kids in public. Why are we banning trans individuals who have never tried to join me in the toilet?

  • Buttons@programming.devEnglish
    10·
    1 month ago

    I watched a Vaush interview with Erin Reed: https://youtu.be/B7f-sh6qpyc

    She talked about Florida banning trans people from using their preferred bathroom. It is already the law. This isn’t good, but, she says, a hopeful silver lining is that the law has never been enforced against anyone, as far as she knows.

    I guess no one wants to spend their life standing outside a bathroom checking birth certificates.

    So, whatever the law or rules say, it’s still important for people to stand up for what’s right and ignore unjust laws. And, you know, just mind your own damn business.