Will this become the final word in the latest skirmish in the transgender war? After a day or so of trying to finesse a battle between Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and incoming transgender Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), House Speaker Mike Johnson finally chose to land on the side of biology.
Responding to Mace's motion, Johnson ruled that sex-specific bathroom access would remain depending on biological sex rather than gender declarations. At the same time, Johnson pointed out how little this would impact any trans-identifying members:
Speaker Mike Johnson has banned transgender women from using women’s bathrooms in the House portion of the Capitol building, enacting into policy a push led by Rep. Nancy Mace.
“All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” Johnson said in a statement Wednesday.
He added: “It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol. Women deserve women’s only spaces.”
Only in America would this even be considered a controversial policy for a government office. We have separate restrooms and changing facilities for the sexes for good reasons, and that has nothing to do with self-conceived identities. It is because each biological sex deserves the opportunity for the dignity of modesty -- both men and women -- if they so choose it.
Furthermore, the capitol has already made a rather generous concession on unisex bathrooms. Anyone who wants to voluntarily participate in McBride's identity circus can join him in one of those restrooms, while women who wish to use facilities designated for their biological sex can do so without intrusion. McBride can use those facilities or the restroom in his designated office otherwise. Why would McBride and Democrats insist on intruding in spaces that are set aside for the opposite sex in the first place?
Democrats have accused Mace and Republicans for picking this fight, but as I wrote last night, that inverts the issue. We have had public restrooms restricted to biological sex for good and obvious reasons for the entirety of public-restroom history until the transgender movement demanded access on the basis of individual feelings a few years ago. Why did they demand that access? They wanted it to undermine the very basis of biological science and to provoke these very kinds of arguments. McBride could simply use the men's restroom, but instead, Democrats demand access to women's spaces for sheer political intimidation and nothing more.
Well, America has had enough of these absurd and radical impositions on their lives. Voters have made that plain enough, even if Democrats still haven't gotten the message. The idea that Congress should throw out millennia of common sense about preserving the dignity of biological men and women because one member has the feelz is so obviously absurd that it could only be missed by progressives.
It took Johnson a little too much time to find his footing, but he made the right choice. It's time to stand up to the radicals and return to reality-based policies.
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