House Republicans Target McBride With Capitol Bathroom Bill

Politics|House Republicans Target McBride With Capitol Bathroom Bill

When Representative-elect Sarah McBride, a Delaware Democrat, won her race for the House this month, becoming the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, she knew she would face attacks from hard-right Republicans over her identity.

She just didn’t expect they would start before she had even been sworn in.

In Washington this week for new member orientation, Ms. McBride was still sitting through mandatory cybersecurity trainings, setting up her payroll, selecting district offices and learning how to introduce a bill when her new Republican colleague, Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, announced plans to introduce a measure to bar transgender women from using women’s restrooms and changing rooms in the Capitol complex.

Ms. Mace did not try to pretend that she was doing anything other than targeting one individual with her resolution, even though it would apply to all employees and officers of the House.

“Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say,” she told reporters on Monday night. “I mean, this is a biological man.” She said that Ms. McBride “does not belong in women’s spaces, women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms — period, full stop.”

The move by Ms. Mace, one of the more attention-seeking members of the House, was straight out of the political playbook Republicans have long employed on transgender issues, which they see as an effective wedge to divide Democrats.

In the final days of the campaign, President-elect Donald J. Trump hammered Vice President Kamala Harris on her stance on transgender rights. And in the days since Democrats lost the White House and both chambers of Congress, there has been much hand-wringing among them about whether their position on the issue cost them with voters.