GOP Rep Writes Bill Specifically To Make Transgender Congresswoman’s Life Hell

Have you ever wondered if there is a “bottom” in the GOP? The daily existence of American conservatives seems to consist 100 percent of being awful in every single way they can conceive. As Republicans salivate over the idea of putting brown people in camps, controlling women, and completely disenfranchising Black folks who want to vote, it’s easy to miss things. For instance, the GOP is writing a bill specifically to make one transgender Congresswoman’s life hell.

Election day was depressing for many reasons. We watched Americans throw away everything that is great about our country — in part largely to the rampant transphobia Donald Trump and the GOP have stoked for years. For a while, they pretended it was about transgender women — “men,” as they say — having an “unfair advantage” in sports. But now, we are seeing that it had nothing to do with sports at all as they target newly-elected Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride with a “bathroom bill” in response to her becoming America’s first openly transgender congresswoman.

McBride has a lot of “firsts” under her belt. She was the first openly transgender woman to work in the White House when Obama was President. She was the first openly trans woman to speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. She became the country’s first openly trans state senator in 2020. Now, as the first openly trans woman to serve in the United States House of Representatives, she also has become the first incoming Congresswoman to scare the opposing party so much that they are writing a bill just to harass her.

GOP Rep Writes Bill Specifically To Make One Transgender Congresswoman’s Life Hell

As you can tell from the video above, the hatred spewed by Republicans was never about protecting children or ensuring sports are fair. They just hate trans people — and Trump superfan Nancy Mace has decided to welcome McBride to Congress by making it difficult for her to use the bathroom.

Mace introduced a bill after the election that seeks to limit McBride’s ability to use the women’s restroom, forcing her into an unsafe space with men. A staggering 47 percent of transgender people are survivors of sexual assault in their lifetimes. Twelve percent of transgender people reported being verbally harassed, physically attacked, or sexually assaulted in a public restroom within a single year period and 59 percent outright avoid using public restrooms. Knowing all of this, Mace wants to make life even harder for McBride.

Mace doesn’t even pretend that the bill doesn’t explicitly target McBride, admitting that this is “absolutely” her intent “and then some” — because she’s awful. “I’m not going to stand for a man, you know, someone with a penis, in the women’s locker room,” Mace says. The bill aims to prevent transgender people from using the correct bathroom specifically in the Capitol.

“You know, Sarah McBride should not be using any of our restrooms in the Capitol, in our office buildings. But Nancy Mace’s resolution doesn’t go far enough,” Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene said when asked about the bill.

McBride’s Response To The Hate

McBride has some harsh words for Republicans, who decided to target her with legislation intended to hurt her specifically. “This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing,” she said on Twitter. “We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars.”

Mace says that she wants to not only make it difficult for McBride to use the bathroom in the Capitol, but to expand that legislative harassment to all “federal property.” Asked on Monday if she would be speaking to McBride, she said no.

“Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say. I mean, this is a biological man,” Mace told reporters, adding that McBride “does not belong in women’s spaces, women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, period, full stop.”

Perhaps Republicans should focus more on governing properly and less on harassing trans people — but the Trump campaign alone aired more than 55,000 anti-trans commercials in a few weeks’ time. They know their audience at least.