Washington- Elected Representative Sarah McBridea Delaware Democrat who is set to become the first transgender member of Congress, called the Republican Party’s efforts to restrict bathroom use an attempt to “grab headlines.”
“Everything was going well until some members of the slim Republican majority in the conference decided to grab headlines and manufacture a crisis,” McBride told CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane.
The Delaware Democrat told CBS News she plans an effort to “politicize my use of the restroom” and indicated she has no plans to use a multi-stall women’s restroom in the Capitol. But she also said “it’s my choice here.”
“If anyone had thought to ask me what I was planning to do, I would have been happy to tell them,” McBride said. “But again, that’s not a problem. And it’s never been a problem at this resort.”
Weeks after McBride became first transgender person elected to CongressA Republican-led effort to restrict the use of Capitol bathrooms began this week. Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, introduced legislation On Monday, House rules will be amended to limit the use of single-sex restrooms in the Capitol complex to those corresponding to the “biological sex” of the users.
McBride, who also made history as the first trans person elected to a seat in the state Senate, tends to stay above the fray, emphasizing that her priority is working for Delawareans at the Bedroom. She told CBS News she wanted people to see her “skill in governing contrasted with their chaos.”
“I would like my grace to contrast with the demagogy we are witnessing at the moment.” McBride said. “I would like my approach to respecting everyone to contrast with the lack of respect we are currently seeing.”
Mace’s two-page resolution alleges that “allowing biological males” to enter the facilities “jeopardizes the safety and dignity of House Members, officers and staff who are women” and would charge Sgt. weapons to enforce the measure.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday he supports restricting “single-sex facilities” at the Capitol, saying in a statement that the facilities “are for individuals of that biological sex only.”
McBride pledged to follow the rules laid out by Johnson, “even if I don’t agree with them,” while asserting that she didn’t run for Congress to “fight for bathrooms.”
Anti-transgender sentiments have become a rallying cry for some Republicans in recent months, often brought up by President-elect Donald Trump and his allies on the campaign trail and on the airwaves.
