A Republican presented a text to prevent the first transgender person elected to the US Congress from accessing the women's toilets at the Capitol, provoking criticism from the Democratic camp on Tuesday.
“Biological men have no business being in women’s private spaces, period,” wrote MP Nancy Mace in a message on X, presenting her draft resolution.
The text targets Democrat Sarah McBride, who at the beginning of November became the first transgender woman elected to the American Congress, and was strongly denounced by Democrats.
“It’s limitlessly cruel,” criticized elected official Becca Balint, describing the text as “odious”.
“Nancy Mace’s resolution is a pathetic move to attract the attention of Trump and the media,” added Mark Pocan, head of an LGBT+ commission in Congress. “And transgender people pay the price,” he lambasted AFP.
Questioned on Tuesday, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, kicked in, assuring that it was “an issue that Congress had never had to deal with before”.
The rights of transgender people were among the hot topics of this American presidential and legislative election campaign.
Access to restrooms is one of the topics under debate, with Republicans opposing transgender women accessing women's restrooms. They claim this would “protect” women and girls.
The main person concerned, Sarah McBride, herself regretted a “maneuver by the extreme right” intended to “make people forget that they have no real solution to offer to the Americans' problems”.
While saying she is aware of her image as a pioneer, she recently affirmed that her priorities in Congress would mainly be the subjects of the cost of childcare, housing, health and even the right to abortion.
