Johnson Struggles to Subdue Unrest Over First Trans Member of Congress

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R- La., struggled on Tuesday to quell a raging controversy in his conference over how to accommodate Congress’ first openly transgender member.

Earlier this month, voters in Delaware elected Democrat Sarah McBride to Congress, a new milestone in a public journey that began when she came out as “transgender” in her college’s student newspaper, The Eagle, in 2012.

Until that time, she said, she had “wrestled with [her] gender identity” and finally came to terms with what had been her “deepest secret.”

At the time of her announcement, McBride was student body president at American University and a White House intern working in its Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Among those who offered McBride support at the time was then-Vice President Joe Biden, who greeted her at a celebration of President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.

“Hey, kid, I just wanted to let you know I am so proud of you, and Beau is so proud of you, and Jill is so proud of you. And I’m so happy that you’re happy,” McBride recalled Biden saying.

Beau Biden, who was then Delaware attorney general, also offered his support, assuring McBride that she was “still a part of the Biden family.”

Later, she worked as the national press secretary of the Human Rights Campaign and was later elected to the Delaware state Senate, becoming both the first openly transgender state senator in the country and the highest-ranking transgender elected official in U.S. history.

But if voters in Delaware have accepted McBride as who she is, the same can’t be said of some House Republicans.

On Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a resolution asking her colleagues to ban McBride from using bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms in the Capitol that correspond to her gender identity.

The resolution also directs the House sergeant at arms with enforcing the bill, though the specifics of how that would be done were not spelled out.

“Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say,” Mace told reporters gathered on the steps of the Capitol Monday. 

“I mean, this is a biological man … who does not belong in women’s spaces, women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, period, full stop.”

Mace found a vocal ally in Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who said her fellow Republican’s resolution did not go far enough.

“A resolution is just a statement by Congress saying that Congress disagrees with something; we need something more binding,” she said outside the party’s weekly conference meeting Tuesday morning.

Greene said during the closed door session, she “directly asked Speaker Johnson what the men in our leadership are going to do about this.”

“This has to be stopped,” she said.

A short time later, during the House Republican leadership’s weekly gaggle with reporters, Johnson tried to shunt the controversy aside.

Asked directly by a reporter whether McBride was a man or a woman, the House speaker said, “I’m not going to get into this … we welcome all new members with open arms who are duly elected representatives of the people. 

“I believe it’s a command[ment] that we treat all persons with dignity and respect, and I’m not going to engage in silly debates about this,” Johnson said.

“This is an issue that Congress has never had to address before and we are going to do that in a deliberate fashion with member consensus on it,” he said, adding, “We will accommodate the needs of every single person.

“That’s all I’m going to say about that,” he said. The assembled reporters, however, were not as eager to move on.

Another asked whether Johnson planned to bring the Mace resolution to the House floor for a vote.

“I am not going to address the plans on any of that,” Johnson said. “I just told you what I’m going to say about the issue.

“I’m not going to engage in this. We don’t look down upon anyone. We treat everybody with dignity and respect,” he continued. “That’s a principle that I’ve pursued my whole life, and we will take care of this, you know, issue of first impression. 

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

But just two hours later, Johnson announced he’d be making a statement in the press gathering area beneath the Will Rogers statue in the Capitol’s statuary hall.

Clearly concerned about how he’d answered the first reporter’s question at the gaggle, Johnson explained he “rejected the premise because the answer is so obvious for anybody who doesn’t know my well-established record on this issue.”

“Let me be unequivocally clear,” the speaker continued. “A man is a man and a woman is a woman. A man cannot become a woman. 

“That said, I also believe Scripture teaches what I just said, that we should treat everybody with dignity, and that it’s possible to believe both of these things at the same time,” Johnson said.

McBride, who is currently on Capitol Hill for new member orientation, responded to the growing brouhaha in a series of X posts.

“Every day, Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully, I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness,” she wrote in her first post.

In a second post, addressing Mace’s resolution direction, McBride said, “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. 

“We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars. Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on,” McBride said.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue