At a Democratic caucus meeting Tuesday, Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) watched as her colleagues reached out and offered their support to Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who will soon be sworn in as the first transgender in going out. member of Congress.
“We have your back,” Balint recalled his fellow representatives telling McBride. “We are at your side.”
At a Thursday event where incoming House freshmen were assigned new offices, McBride's name was greeted with loud applause.
Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) shown in Washington in 2022.
(Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/Associated Press)
According to Balint, co-chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, many Democratic members are excited to welcome and get to know McBride, not only as a queer history maker, but as a new colleague whose reputation as an effective state legislator in Delaware preceded her. his arrival in Washington. .
The support has been intentionally loud, Balint said, because they also want to send an unmistakable message to House Republicans who have attacked McBride with bigotry and intimidation in recent days that Democrats “are not going to back down.” regarding the rights of transgender people.
“We absolutely have to recommit to this fight, to protect everyone's inherent dignity,” Balint said.
On Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace (RS.C.) introduced a resolution calling for a ban on transgender women from using Capitol bathrooms that align with their gender identity. On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced a similar policy for Capitol bathrooms, locker rooms and locker rooms. The same day, Mace introduced a bill that would expand such bans to federal facilities nationwide.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R.S.C.) leaves the speaker's office on Capitol Hill in 2023.
(J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)
Mace said his measures, which would require approval, are aimed at protecting women and girls, and then launched a new line of products to capitalize on his stance. He has previously supported LGBTQ+ rights.
In issuing his bathroom rule, which falls under his purview as speaker, Johnson said, “Women deserve women-only spaces.” He also noted that all members have private bathrooms inside their offices, although they may be far from the House floor.
The day before, Johnson had responded to a question on the issue by emphasizing the need to “treat all people with dignity and respect.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks at a Donald Trump campaign rally in October.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
Bathroom access has long been an issue for women in the Capitol, which originally operated under the presumption that lawmakers were men. Only after more and more women won seats in Congress and denounced the shortage of facilities for them was the problem resolved.
With the latest moves aimed at McBride, Democrats say they are fighting to combat new discrimination in the same sphere, a setback they see as particularly cruel for its attack on a single incoming lawmaker, and even more alarming for its potential to harm others. queer people visiting the country. or work in the Capitol.
“This incredibly cowardly and cruel attack aimed at [McBride] “It was certainly intended to dehumanize her before she was even sworn in, but it really doesn't just affect our first trans member of Congress,” Balint said. “It affects everyone who works on Capitol Hill and identifies as trans and non-binary. It affects reporters covering Congress who identify as trans and non-binary. And it also affects every one of our constituents who come to the halls of Congress to meet with us.”
Speaking against the measures means supporting McBride, who is “a serious legislator” and wants to get to work on a series of difficult issues without having to worry about where she can get to the bathroom, Balint said. But it's also about “showing the LGBTQ community across the country that we stand up for them and stand up for them.”
The debate follows an election cycle rife with anti-transgender rhetoric, when many Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump, began ridiculing Democrats for their support of transgender equality as a central campaign message, for a sum of hundreds of millions of dollars in collective advertising spending.
“The Republican Party has focused on transgender inclusion as something it wants to reverse, so the exciting addition of the first openly trans member of Congress has sparked an appalling response, which is [for them] engaging in an ad hominem attack that takes the form of exclusion,” said Kate Redburn, co-director of the Gender and Sexuality Law Center at Columbia Law School.
Democrats have at times struggled to respond to the barrage of Republican attacks. In the last week, however, they appear to have arrived at an approach straight out of McBride's own playbook in Delaware, where she won a state congressional seat not by running away from her transgender identity and support for queer rights, but by contextualizing them alongside with other important issues, such as the cost of living and access to healthcare.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) wrote in X on Tuesday that she is proud to work alongside McBride and that it was “disappointing to see Republicans pull tricks” by attacking her.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said she is proud to work alongside Rep.-elect Sarah McBride.
(José Luis Magaña / Associated Press)
“They should take a page from Rep.-elect McBride's book,” Pressley wrote, “and focus on actually governing.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) similarly questioned Republicans' decision to start the next Congress by “bullying” McBride instead of focusing on real issues. “Is this what we are doing?” said.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who has a transgender grandson and has been outspoken against past anti-LGBTQ+ measures, struck a similar note in an interview Thursday, in which she called Republican measures attacking McBride as “absolutely scandalous” and “completely out of character.”
“What a ridiculous approach this is,” he said. “There are needs for many, many Americans who don't have the health care they need, seniors who can't afford their medications. “Those are the things we should get to work on, that I'm sure Sarah would want to get to work on, and this is something out of the ordinary.”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) called the measures attacking McBride “absolutely outrageous” and “completely out of line.”
(Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)
In his own comments, McBride acknowledged what many see as bigotry at the root of Republican actions, but he also tried to reorient the conversation toward doing things for his constituents.
“I'm not here to fight over bathrooms. “I'm here to fight for Delawareans and reduce the costs families face,” he said in a statement Wednesday. She said Johnson's rules were an “effort to distract from the real problems facing this country” but that she would not allow them to distract her, even as she follows them.
On Thursday, he made clear that he will work to ensure the Capitol is safe for everyone, including his LGBTQ+ constituents, but he does not plan to allow “a right-wing culture war machine” to turn his identity “into an issue.”
Lisa Goodman, a longtime LGBTQ+ activist in Delaware and friend of McBride, said the representative-elect's family and friends back home “are disappointed that this is how she is greeted by the people who will be her colleagues.”
But they're not worried, Goodman said, because they know McBride is the only one capable of navigating those waters.
“She can handle these attacks and stay focused on what the big picture is, what's important in the big picture, like no one I've ever met,” Goodman said.
Goodman said McBride has a rare talent for winning over people, which will serve him well in the coming months as he gets to know his new colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans.
“She is just a deeply good person, and my hope is that as her Republican colleagues in Congress get to know her, they will see her as a person and not as an unknown member of the trans community who they feel is okay to attack. “Goodman said.
Balint said several Republican House members have told him privately that they support the LGBTQ+ community and do not support divisive policies. He said he hopes McBride's kindness and humanity in the face of such harassment will really rally those Republicans to his side, and perhaps even inspire them to take a stand in his favor.
“It's time for them to finally show some courage,” Balint said. “I ask that you uphold the basic and inherent dignity of all of us here in this building.”
Times staff writer Andrea Castillo in Washington contributed to this report.
