House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday announced that the Capitol and House office buildings would officially segregate bathroom facilities by "biological sex.”
“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.
The statement bars transgender House members, their staff, and others from using bathrooms of the gender they identify with.
The segregation of facilities like bathrooms was a signature feature of life in the Jim Crow era, when many bathrooms in the southern United States were off limits to Black people.
Johnson’s announcement arrived on the same day as Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors trans people who have been killed and raises awareness of bigotry against transgender Americans.
In his statement, Johnson did not elaborate on how the new facility policy would be enforced. Johnson did not say whether the House sergeant-at-arms would be empowered to police Capitol bathrooms, whether officers would need to inspect genitals to ensure bathroom usage is confined to biological sex, or if officers would be empowered to make an arrest before, during, or after someone uses the bathroom in violation of his edict.
