WASHINGTON — Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a resolution Monday that would ban transgender women from using female bathrooms in the Capitol just weeks before Democratic Rep.-elect Sarah McBride of Delaware is set to become the first out transgender member of Congress.
The measure would prohibit any lawmakers and House employees from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.”
Asked by reporters whether her resolution was meant to target a marginalized person, Mace said, “Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say in this.”
“This is a biological man trying to force himself into women’s spaces, and I’m not going to tolerate it,” she added.
McBride, who won the race for Delaware’s lone House seat this month, slammed the measure Monday.
“This 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. We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars,” she said in a statement.
“Every day Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully, I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness,” she said on X.
Mace told reporters that her resolution is about “women’s rights” and protecting them in “private spaces,” arguing that the “radical left” was trying to erase those rights.
A spokesperson for McBride told NBC News that Mace did not reach out before she introduced the measure and that McBride found out about it in the media.
Mace’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The House sergeant-at-arms would be tasked with enforcing the resolution if it passes. The measure would not require passage by the Senate or a signature from the president.
Mace said Monday that she plans to reintroduce the measure in the next Congress, when Republicans will retain control of the House.
Republicans spent more than $200 million on network television ads targeting trans people this year, according to data shared with NBC News this month by AdImpact, a firm that tracks political ad spending.
The Republican Party platform this year leaned heavily into anti-trans rhetoric, calling for banning trans people from competing in sports that align with their gender identities, proposing undoing Title IX protections for LGBTQ people and calling for barring the use of taxpayer dollars for funding gender-affirming surgery.
In the days following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, some Democrats blamed their party’s position on transgender rights as contributing to Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat.
Those Democratic lawmakers said the party went too far and pandered to what they called “the far left” while trying not to offend anyone.
The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said Monday that Mace was cruel and discriminating against her incoming colleague, calling the resolution a “political charade by a grown-up bully.”
“It is also another warning sign that the incoming anti-equality House majority will continue to focus on targeting LGBTQ+ people rather than the cost of living, price gouging or any of the problems the American people elected them to solve,” spokesperson Laurel Powell said in a statement.