Republican Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina is proposing a bill to bar transgender people from all federal buildings across the country, which detractors say will “not protect or promote anyone’s safety.”
Sarah McBride of Delaware became the first trans woman elected to the House of Representatives earlier this month, prompting the bill’s proposal. If Mace’s measure succeeds, McBride will be unable to use women’s restrooms at work.
States across the country have implemented a dramatic increase in anti-trans legislation since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. In 2021, the number of anti-trans bills introduced (155) nearly increased from 85 in 2020. US legislators debated record-breaking volumes of anti-trans bills for the fourth consecutive year, with 615 measures introduced in 2023 and 652 this year.
Bills have targeted transgender adolescents and adults in a variety of ways, including limiting access to restrooms. Thirteen states now have legislation prohibiting trans people from accessing school toilets that correspond to their gender identity.
Source: Movement Advancement Project
According to the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee all prohibit transgender students from using restrooms and facilities that correspond to their gender identity in K-12 schools.
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Dakota have bathroom bans in schools and some government-owned buildings, whereas Florida and Utah have made it a criminal offense in some cases for people to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity in all government-owned buildings and spaces, including schools, colleges, and government offices.
Kansas, Montana, and Nevada do not have bans, but rather laws that define sex and gender.
Representative-elect McBride responded to Mace’s bill and her numerous posts on X (formerly Twitter) about trans people within a short span of 36 hours. According to MeidasTouch Editor-in-Chief Ron Filipowski, she made a total of 262 posts. McBride made it clear that her focus is not on engaging in debates about bathrooms but on fighting for the people of Delaware and addressing the financial challenges faced by families. She emphasized that the attempts to divert attention from the real issues plaguing the country have not affected her dedication and determination to serve her constituents. Despite the distractions, she remains fully committed to representing Delaware, which she considers to be the greatest state in the nation, starting in January.
Mace, a survivor of sexual assault, has expressed that her advocacy for maintaining separate bathrooms and locker rooms for transgender individuals stems from her genuine concern for people’s safety.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has expressed his support for a proposed ban on transgender individuals using Capitol Hill bathrooms.
Julia Friedland, deputy press secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, also stated that the state has one of the harshest bathroom bans in the country for women’s safety reasons.
In an interview with Newsweek, she expressed her concern about women having to worry about individuals from the opposite sex being present in their locker room. She emphasized that instances of this happening to female athletes have become a cause for concern.
“We also need to prioritize the safety and protection of our girls and women in various situations, including prisons and public restrooms. This bill ensures that they are safeguarded and not subjected to potentially harmful or disadvantageous circumstances.”
According to a study conducted by UCLA in 2018, no correlation was found between inclusive trans policies and bathroom safety.
Logan Casey, the Director of Policy Research at MAP, discussed the efficacy of bathroom bans as safety measures in an interview with Newsweek. Casey emphasized that the concern for safety in bathrooms is a widely held and reasonable value.
Bathroom bans, unfortunately, do not serve to protect or promote anyone’s safety. On the contrary, they actually heighten the risk of harm to both transgender individuals and cisgender individuals who may not conform to traditional gender norms. This is evident from numerous accounts of cisgender women experiencing harassment in women’s bathrooms simply because someone wrongly assumes they are transgender. It is important to note that the incidents that proponents of bathroom bans worry about, such as harassment and abuse, are already prohibited by law.
Mace filmed herself on November 19 putting a sign that says “biological” over a women’s bathroom in Congress, captioning the video: “I never thought we would need a sign for this, but women’s restrooms are for BIOLOGICAL women. Not men.”
According to the Royal Society for Biology, labeling gender as fixed and unchangeable at birth is considered transphobic.
Transgender individuals in the United States are currently experiencing an alarming surge in brutal assaults. According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a total of 36 gender non-conforming people lost their lives in the past year alone, with Black transgender women accounting for fifty percent of the victims.
According to the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics for 2022 released in 2023, there was a 32.9 percent increase in hate crimes against trans people. The report documented 469 incidents that were motivated by gender identity bias.
Bathroom bills have sparked controversy for years. In 2016, a Republican bill in North Carolina banned transgender individuals from using bathrooms that aligned with their gender identity. This move faced significant backlash, ultimately leading to the bill’s repeal in 2017.
According to Casey, the lack of backlash was not experienced by the 13 states that have implemented bans in 2021 or later. Casey stated to Newsweek that there has been a surge in anti-LGBTQ legislation in recent years, which may explain the absence of strong opposition to these bans.
In 2023 and 2024, there were more than 500 bills aimed at targeting the LGBTQ community. This relentless barrage of attacks covers almost every aspect of our lives, which could potentially lead to individual attacks, such as bathroom bans, receiving less public attention.
According to Brandon Wolf, the National Press Secretary for HRC, other states have also faced consequences for enacting discriminatory laws. He stated, “While it’s true that North Carolina paid a uniquely steep price for its hateful anti-trans law, other states have seen conferences canceled, events rescheduled, and companies speak out against laws that make us all less safe.”
The current iteration of this fight greatly requires the influential voices of leaders in the business community, as the backlash of 2016 was predominantly driven by them.
The White House has shown its support for transgender individuals by issuing a statement on Trans Day of Remembrance. The statement emphasizes that America should not tolerate hate and discrimination. It acknowledges the unfortunate reality that many transgender Americans, including young individuals, are subjected to cruelty and harassment for simply being true to themselves.
