Transmissions: No rest in Congress

  • by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
  • Tuesday November 26, 2024
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Illustration: Christine Smith
Illustration: Christine Smith

In an election that saw a convicted felon vowing to put an end to the so-called gender insanity of letting transgender people actually have a small handful of rights in the United States actually win the presidency, there was one small, bright spot for the transgender community: Sarah McBride won her bid to represent Delaware in the United States House of Representatives.

McBride, a Democrat, has been a member of Delaware's state Senate since 2021, and is now the very first openly transgender person to serve in Congress. It's a big deal.

In better times, I would regale you with her story: how she staffed several campaigns in Delaware. That she interned at the White House. How she ended up as a friend with President Joe Biden and his family. I'd likely be unable to resist mentioning my own all-too-brief visit with her when she came through my area and signed a copy of her book, "Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality."

These aren't better times.

No sooner had the dust settled on the election than Congressmember Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina), went on the attack. Mace, who in 2021 said, "I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality. No one should be discriminated against," had clearly changed her tune.

Labeling McBride as a "guy in a skirt," Mace pushed to bar transgender people from using restrooms inconsistent with their sex assigned at birth. After House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) pushed for a rule change that served the same purpose, Mace doubled down, crafting a bill designed to bar "Biological Men from Women's Spaces on All Federal Property." This would prevent transgender people from accessing restrooms in much more than Congress, including national parks, museums, and airports.

McBride, meanwhile, has meekly accepted the rule change, treating it as the distraction that it is. "I'm not here to fight about bathrooms," said McBride. "I'm here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families."

Nine years ago, voters in Houston overturned the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), after a campaign that included some of the first modern anti-trans propaganda. Indeed, even though the law was focused on banning discrimination for a host of classes ranging from sexual orientation to military status, the ordinance was pushed by its opponents as a "bathroom law" due to HERO protecting the right of transgender people to use a restroom consistent with their gender expression.

Since the HERO repeal, the power of the transgender bathroom panic has waxed and waned. It was all but forgotten in recent years, after a stinging rebuke in the wake of the repeal of North Carolina's House Bill 2. Anti-trans forces largely moved onto sports bans and such.

Yet, in the wake of the November 5 election, it has come roaring back.

According to AdImpact, nearly $215 million was spent on ads depicting transgender people as a threat. That works out to about 134 bucks per transgender person.

While the ads were largely targeting Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for supposedly supporting "taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners" — and while Republican candidate former President Donald Trump was pushing a ruse that children were receiving gender confirmation surgery in their elementary schools — the specter of transgender people in bathrooms was not far behind.

Now, the issue is right back at the forefront, at the heart of Congressmember-elect McBride's new position.

I don't want to spend too much time blaming the victim. I can't help but think of the treatment of Hiram Revels, the first Black U.S. senator, elected during Reconstruction, and how he was treated. In more modern times, I also consider how Congressmembers Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) — the first Muslim congressmembers — have been treated. Congress is rife with bullies seeking to take down their newest members, especially if they do not fit a very narrow band of identities.

I do wish McBride had done more to stand up for herself and, what's more, I want her to stand up in light of Mace's further attacks on trans rights. Both McBride and Mace will have private restrooms in their House offices, so the rule change will likely have little effect on their day-to-day lives. It will, however, cause harm to any transgender or gender-nonconforming person who visits Congress and doesn't have access to such facilities, let alone the facilities that would be so barred across the country if Mace's bill passes.

Likewise, for Mace, she has been positively gleeful over the attention she's gotten for this move, high-diving into the news cycle post-election and making a big political splash. This is exactly what we could expect from her, or most other GOP congressmembers.

Yet, I cannot help but once again see the silence of the left. Aside from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) calling Mace "disgusting" and calling this a ploy to "make a buck and fundraise," as well as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) stating that Mace "clearly needs an intervention," the Democratic Party has largely met this with all-too-characteristic silence.

After all, it's what they did all election, so why stop now? If they cannot stand up for one of their own, then how can we expect them to stand up for any of us?

We are indeed in a time of "gender insanity," but it's not coming from the trans community. If McBride is unsafe, and if so few of her colleagues will stand up to defend her, then I fear there's not much hope for the rest of us.

Gwen Smith has used a congressional restroom before. You'll find her at www.gwensmith.com

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