By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
From left: U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Nancy Mace
While Democrats stumble defending the trans community, Republicans will be opportunistic in escalating their attacks, writes John Casey.
When Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers and became the first Black player in Major League Baseball, the Dodgers General Manager, Branch Rickey, told Robinson that he wanted someone with “guts” in anticipation of the harsh treatment Robinson was going to receive.
That virulent racism did come to pass, and Robinson put up with so much during his career, but in spite of all the hate, he performed brilliantly. He also had a little help. His teammates rallied around him.
Being the first at anything — a barrier-breaker — is difficult to say the least. Barney Frank was the first voluntarily out gay member of Congress. I was on the Hill at that time, and the cruel jokes about his sexuality ran rampant. When giving an interview in 1995, then-U.S. Rep. Dick Armey referred to Frank as “Barney F*g.” That was what Frank was called behind his back.
Armey had the decency to apologize, particularly since Democrats defended Frank vigorously.
Incoming U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware will be the first transgender member of Congress when she’s sworn in January 3, and even before she takes her seat, Republicans are unleashing their hate. South Carolina Republican U.S. Rep Nancy Mace introduced a bill that would deny McBride the right to use the women’s restroom off the floor of the House.
And homophobic and transphobic House Speaker Mike Johnson went a step further. He announced a policy banning transgender people from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity in the U.S. Capitol and House Office Buildings. Moving forward, all single-sex facilities in the Capitol complex — including restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms—are strictly for individuals based on their gender assigned at birth. This affects not only McBride but any trans person visiting the Capitol.
If you are trans, you are not welcome in the U.S. Capitol, and if history is any guide and current anti-trans policies continue, McBride has a rough road ahead of her.
Yes, Democrats will have her back. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Mace’s bill was “bullying.” But Republican House members, led by the snake that is Speaker Johnson, the serpent Mace, and the ophidian Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, will unleash poisonous venom McBride’s way — and that will likely reverberate around the country.
Johnson, Greene, and Mace, who have led the charge to keep McBride out of “their” bathroom, have a misplaced and dim-witted view in their exclusionary tactics. Greene has threatened to “punch” McBride if she sees her in the bathroom. I guess they weren’t afraid when an alleged sexl trafficker, former Rep.Matt Gaetz of Florida, was standing outside the ladies’ room door?
When I went to school, there was a legitimate reason to fear going to the lavatory — that’s what a restroom was called then. The boys’ room was sometimes filled with smoke, because that’s where the “heads” went to smoke their cigarettes while they taunted underclassmen who were just trying to go to the bathroom.
As we all know, the United States has seen an alarming rise in the number of anti-transgender bathroom bills introduced in state legislatures. These bills, often championed by the likes of Greene and Mace, seek to restrict transgender individuals from using public restrooms that align with their gender identity, forcing them to use facilities corresponding to the sex they were assigned at birth.
The argument driving these bills is often framed as one of safety, but their real impact has been to single out and marginalize an already vulnerable population.
And that’s exactly what Johnson, Greene, and Mace and their ilk are doing, only this time to an adult, and that’s worrisome. They are also forcing Democrats to defend McBride at a time when some Democrats are saying support for trans people is partly the reason the party lost the election.
That’s why the Republicans will keep attacking McBride — because they are using her as a weapon to fan the flames of trans hate in a country full of MAGA haters, Further, each time Republicans make McBride an issue and Democrats come to her rescue, the GOP will try to score political points by calling McBride’s defenders “extremists.”
Republicans are going to be opportunistic in attacking the trans community. They see how Democrats are twisting themselves in knots trying to figure out how to defend transgender individuals. The barrier-breaking McBride will be the face of the GOP strategy to paint trans people as subhuman.
That’s why, quoting Rickey, McBride is going to have to have “guts” to withstand the assault, and I believe she will. And it’s crucial that she stands her ground because the GOP majority is reflecting the way this country is starting to turn its back on the trans community.
A friend — well, I won’t call her that — someone that I know sent me a Facebook message with a link to the McBride bathroom story asking how I felt about it. I said it was wrong and that it showed Mace hadn’t taken the time to understand McBride and the trans community — like Mace would even do something like that. Let alone apologize to McBride like Armey apologized to Frank.
Then,I received a revolting response that I believe is indicative of the ignorant way many people view trans humans: “I think that if you have to stand to pee, then you should be using the men’s room 🙂.” Sadly, I don’t think this person is in the minority. All of the hate-talk the GOP has unfurled against the trans community is having a cascading and adverse effect, and that will only get worse in the days and months ahead.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see restaurants and stores in certain areas of the country begin to piggyback on anti-trans school bathroom prohibitions and mimic Johnson’s move and Mace’s proposed legislation.
Watch for it. Public venues will implement similar bans for adults. Many hateful and spiteful people take their cues from their elected leaders, as is plainly evident in so much damage MAGA has wrought. The U.S. Capitol not welcoming a trans person gives a narrow-minded business person carte blanche to do the same thing.
Johnson’s cold, cruel, and calculated move puts McBride in an absolutely horrible position, and it makes her feel even more like an unwanted outlier.
Some people simply shrugged when Project 2025 was revealed. The GOP see trans people as not human but an “ideology.” Excluding McBride is their first step in a reign of terror on the trans community — and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.
Johnson, Mace, and Greene’s destruction has only just begun.
Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit Advocate.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.
