Nov. 20 (UPI) — Bathrooms on the House side of the U.S. Capitol and in the House Office Building can’t be used based on gender identity, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced on Wednesday.
“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 prepared statement. “Women deserve women’s-only spaces.”
Johnson said each House member’s office includes a private restroom and the Capitol has unisex bathrooms available throughout its expanse that anyone can use.
He did not say what the potential penalty for violating the House bathroom policy for single-sex bathrooms might be.
The new rule comes as Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., on Nov. 5 became the first transgendered person to win election to the House of Representatives.
McBride and anyone else who identifies as transgendered will have to use the unisex bathrooms, the private bathroom in House members’ offices or bathrooms that align with their biological sex while in the House annex of the Capitol or the House Office Building.
Johnson told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday the bathroom policy is “not anti-anyone” and is enforceable.
He said the policy is “pro-woman” and previously was unwritten but now is in writing.
All House members, their staff and anyone who visits the House wing of the Capitol or the House Office Building is subject to the newly written House bathroom policy.
The policy applies to the single-sex bathrooms located next to the House chambers in the Capitol, which are the most conveniently placed bathrooms for House members, their staff and guests while the House is in session.
McBride and others who identify as transgendered would have to use the bathrooms that would align with their biological sex or find the nearest unisex bathroom during long floor sessions.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., recently asked Johnson to prevent McBride from using women’s bathrooms and other single-sex facilities for women in the Capitol and House Office Building.
Johnson did not fully grant Mace’s request but instead put the new House bathroom rules in place only in areas controlled by the House of Representatives.
Johnson on Tuesday told reporters “a man is a man and a woman is a woman, and a man cannot become a woman.”
