Trans rights to be marquee fight for House Republicans

Republicans’ first response to Sarah McBride's election to Congress was to ban her from using women's restrooms throughout the Capitol. But their early treatment of the first openly transgender House member is likely just a preview of how they'll navigate transgender politics and policies for the next two years.

Believing voters in the 2024 elections rejected Democrats’ more inclusive positions on transgender rights, Republicans appear ready in 2025 to double down in support of executive orders and provisions in spending bills that would make it harder for transgender individuals to get health care, serve in the military or participate in school activities. President-elect Donald Trump signaled on the campaign trail that he would pursue new restrictions in the military and in schools, and pledged in December to make U.S. policy reflect that there are only “two genders.”

Rep. Nancy Mace, the South Carolina Republican who led the push to bar McBride from using women's restrooms in the Capitol, is showing no sign of letting up. Asked how she would press transgender issues legislatively in the next Congress, she said: “You should look at the bills that I have been filing. That'll be educational for you.” Mace has offered bills that would restrict bathroom usage for transgender people in places receiving federal funds and impose penalties on doctors performing gender-affirming care.

“There’s always things you can do through the appropriations process,” said House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.), adding that there’s public support for “common sense” guardrails related to policy areas like transgender participation in competitive sports. Polling from Gallup in 2023 found 69 percent of people believe athletes should only play on sports teams that conform with their birth gender.

The push on transgender rights is poised to be one of the marquee health policy and culture war battles that the House GOP takes on next year, with Republican lawmakers showing no sign of softening. Though some Democrats are questioning the party’s stance when it comes to transgender women participating in competitive sports, many are gearing up to fight back.

Democratic lawmakers generally support the rights of transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity, though they’ve largely been responding to GOP-led attacks on that community rather than working to broadly expand protections. President Joe Biden’s administration has taken steps to safeguard protections for the community, such as strengthening protections for youth transgender people health care in June.

“I know that I'm willing to take my gloves off and go after anyone who tries to attack her [and other transgender peoples’] dignity, because it's so enraging, just on a basic level of human dignity,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said of McBride.

The GOP-led House voted earlier this term to prevent members of the military from receiving gender affirming medical care and to ban transgender women from playing in women’s sports. Last month, Republicans insisted on a provision in the annual defense policy bill aimed at restricting medical treatments for transgender children.

Looking ahead, many health experts — particularly those who are concerned about the mental health implications of withholding gender-affirming care — are fearful of Republican-led efforts to deny funding to hospitals that receive Medicaid and Medicare if physicians assist trans youth with transitions. A case is now pending before the right-leaning Supreme Court that could allow states to criminalize gender-affirming care for minors.

In Congress, the issue is also getting personal as Republicans look toward McBride joining the legislative body. In November, Speaker Mike Johnson announced plans to ban transgender women from using women’s bathrooms in the House: “A man cannot become a woman,” he said.

Interviews with more than a dozen House Republicans as the bathroom debate played out revealed that many GOP members are either uncomfortable talking about transgender issues or are openly hostile to them. Most Republicans interviewed also misgendered McBride.

“You're a dude. You want to wear a dress, it’s a free country, but at the end of the day you're still a dude in a dress,” said Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), who added that he’d welcome grabbing a drink or coffee with her.

The new rules, which will restrict transgender people from using multi-stall restrooms for their preferred gender throughout the entire House side of the Capitol and in all House office buildings, showed how committed Republicans are to pursuing a rigid definition of gender in their own place of work.

In response, the Congressional Equality Caucus shared with congressional chiefs of staff a list of every single-stall restroom around the Capitol complex, showing there are no such restrooms in the Capitol building itself. And the GOP ban has implications beyond just lawmakers themselves.

“We've already heard from some members of the press who are trans, who are struggling with this [and I] have also heard people reaching out to me about their discomfort now visiting the Capitol because they identify as trans,” said House Equity Caucus Co-Chair Becca Balint (D-Vt.).

The move also hints at the possibility of similar restrictions in other federal office buildings and federally funded facilities. Mace has legislation that would expand the policy, along with a proposal to impose strict penalties for doctors who perform gender-affirming care for minors.

McBride herself has said she isn’t going to contest, or try to test, the new policy that Mace and others acknowledge was specifically crafted with her in mind, saying in a statement, “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms.”

Some Republicans may agree with her.

“To some people, this is the most important issue, I guess,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), chair of the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, said of the bathroom debate when the ban was announced. “I kind of look at getting our budget heading in the right direction.”

He added of McBride specifically: “I’ll treat her like a colleague. She was elected by her constituents, so it’s the way it is.”

Daniella Diaz, Katherine Tully-McManus and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.