South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace is crusading on one of the Great Issues of Our Time: bathroom admittance.
Pushing legislation that would bar Delaware’s newly elected Rep. Sarah McBride from Capitol women’s facilities. McBride is transgender. Mace has posted videos of herself fuming and, within a short span, over 300 related tweets. Mace was unabashedly graphic: “No penises in women’s rooms!”
So much for collegial spirit and welcoming new members.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, overseer of the institution’s toilets, bowed to Mace and decreed a rule that gender designations on birth certificates would govern. How this can be enforced might be a question. Nevertheless, Mace postured taping, with a flourish of pride, a card reading “BIOLOGICAL” above the “Women” sign on a restroom door.
No penises in women’s rooms!
The idea of one Congress member sexually assaulting another in a House restroom seems pretty far-fetched (Lauren Boebert aside). And as for penises, gay men in men’s rooms might seem a more realistic concern. Though in seven decades using men’s rooms I’ve never seen a penis in one.
McBride’s response was admirably restrained. Saying she hadn’t come to Congress to argue about bathrooms, but Delawareans’ real concerns. And if there’s a birth certificate rule, she’ll simply obey it. Whatever.
Meantime, if this is all about penises, I wondered: does McBride actually even have one? Researching this, I found nothing on Wikipedia, but typing the direct question into Google revealed the answer: no. McBride had the surgery. Making Nancy Mace’s penis histrionics all the more ridiculous.
And hey, Nancy — if you’re in such a tizzy about biological males hypothetically sexually assaulting females in women’s facilities — how about your dear leader Trump, adjudicated to have done the actual deed?
Anyhow, if there were really any true concern here, the answer would seem pretty simple: unisex restrooms. And the real safety threat, if any, is violence against trans people, a threat Nancy Mace’s behavior only heightens. While, true to today’s totally dishonest Republican ethos, her shtick was just performative. Part of Republicans’ shameful effort to exploit a “eww” factor to dehumanize and demonize some of our fellow citizens. It’s sick and sickening.
These are the people we’ve elected to govern us. Ewwwwww.