A leader in the US Congress on Wednesday objected to the first transgender elected official being able to use the women’s bathroom at the Capitol, an issue that is sparking heated debate in Washington.
“All single-sex infrastructure in the Capitol (…) is reserved for people of this biological sex,” said the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson in a press release.
The Republican was reacting to a controversy launched by an elected official from his party, who presented a text at the beginning of the week to prevent Democrat Sarah McBride from accessing the women’s toilets of this institution.
This thirty-year-old became the first transgender woman elected to the American Congress at the beginning of November, representing the state of Delaware.
“Women deserve spaces reserved for women,” said Mike Johnson, specifying that Sarah McBride, who will be sworn in in January, would however have access to her own toilet in her office.
The question of the rights of transgender people has been one of the most divisive subjects of these American presidential and legislative elections.
Access to restrooms is particularly debated, with Republicans opposing transgender women accessing women’s restrooms. They assure that this would “protect” women and girls.
Democrats, on the contrary, accuse Republicans of transphobia and describe the measure targeting Sarah McBride as “cruel”.
The main person concerned herself regretted a “maneuver by the extreme right” intended to “make people forget that they have no real solution to offer to the problems of the Americans”.
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.
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