Mace eyes legislation banning trans women from restrooms in federal buildings

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) plans to file legislation that would prohibit trans women from using women’s restrooms and changing rooms in all federal buildings, going further than a resolution Monday to bar transgender women from Capitol facilities.

“I’m working on legislation that would ban it on federal property,” Mace told reporters Tuesday morning. The bill would also apply to schools, she said.

“If you are a school that is funded by the federal government, this shouldn’t go on,” Mace told reporters.

Asked about the details of her proposal, Mace said she is “absolutely” going to expand her initial resolution, which aims to prohibit members, officers and employees of the House from using single-sex facilities that correspond to their gender identity. “Wait till you see what I file next,” she said.

Mace’s new bill could run afoul of the Biden administration’s latest changes to Title IX, the federal civil rights law preventing sex discrimination in schools and education programs that receive government funding. The administration’s new rule, which the Education Department finalized in April, forbids policies that categorically ban transgender students from school bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

Federal judges have blocked the changes, which do not apply to athletics, in at least 26 states, and the Supreme Court in August denied the Biden administration’s request to partially reinstate the new rule.

President-elect Trump has promised to roll back the latest interpretation of Title IX “on day one” of his presidency, though fully reversing and replacing the Biden administration’s changes could take several years.

“The only thing that violates Title IX are men being in women’s spaces,” Mace said Tuesday, “and I’m going to put a f—ing stop to this bull—- and this insanity.”

Mace’s original resolution, which she filed late Monday, comes just a week after Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.) made history as the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.

The measure charges the House sergeant-at-arms, William McFarland, with enforcing the ban, but it is unclear how the House’s chief law enforcement officer will determine who can and cannot use the Capitol’s facilities.

State laws that bar trans people from using public restrooms that match their gender identity often rely on anonymous complaints, a notoriously unreliable enforcement mechanism. LGBTQ rights activists in May flooded a tip line designed to alert officials in Utah to possible violations of the state’s bathroom ban with thousands of false complaints.

In a statement, McBride brushed off Mace’s resolution as a distraction and accused far-right Republicans of “manufacturing culture wars.”

“Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on,” she said.

“It’s been a while since Nancy Mace had her 15 minutes of fame,” said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, which promotes LGBTQ equality in the House. The resolution, he said, “is a pathetic, attention-seeking attempt to grab Trump’s eye and the media spotlight — and trans people, including trans employees, are paying the price.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has sought to ban gender-affirming care for minors and prohibit transgender student-athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity, on Tuesday declined to weigh in on Mace’s resolution.

“We’ll provide appropriate accommodation for every member of Congress,” he said.

Later on Tuesday, Johnson said he believes “a man is a man, and a woman is a woman.”

“But I also believe we treat everybody with dignity,” he said. “We can do and believe all those things at the same time.”

Mace has rejected assertions from some Democrats and LGBTQ rights groups that her resolution discriminates against LGBTQ people. She told reporters that she broadly supports the community, twice voting to codify same-sex marriage protections.

“But I have a big fat red line when it comes to men and women’s private spaces,” she told the Washington Post on Tuesday.

Mace’s resolution and forthcoming proposal come amid Democratic infighting over the role the party’s broad support for transgender rights played in its failure to capture the presidency and either chamber of Congress.

Trump and Republicans bet big on anti-transgender messaging in the final stretch of the election, pouring millions into ads that painted their Democratic opponents as extreme and out of touch with most Americans for supporting trans-inclusive policies.

Just 4 percent of voters said opposition to transgender athletes and surgeries drove their vote in this year’s election, according to exit polling released by the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group.

Mychael Schnell contributed.

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