WASHINGTON — More than a dozen transgender rights activists were arrested Thursday after staging a protest in a women’s bathroom right next to the office of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who recently imposed a ban on transgender and nonbinary people using bathrooms in the House that align with their gender identity.
Chelsea Manning, the trans activist and former U.S. military intelligence analyst imprisoned for seven years for disclosing classified information to the public, was among the people who quietly gathered in a bathroom on the fifth floor of the Cannon building, which is part of the House complex.
Their surprise demonstration was in response to Johnson’s new House policy, but also aimed at Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who has introduced at least two bills in recent weeks at pushing transgender people out of public spaces.
Mace admitted the first of her bills, which would bar House lawmakers and employees from using House bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, is “100%” targeted at one person: transgender Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.). Her second bill is aimed at barring bathroom access for transgender people in all federal buildings, including public schools and universities, national parks and even airports, train stations and bus terminals.
For about 20 minutes, Manning and others took over the public bathroom by Johnson’s office and led chants while holding up a banner that read, “FLUSH BATHROOM BIGOTRY.” Outside in the hall, right in front of Johnson’s office door, more activists shouted chants and held a massive sign that read, “CONGRESS STOP PISSING ON OUR RIGHTS.”
“Speaker Johnson! Nancy Mace! Our bodies are no debate!” chanted the group. They took aim at Democratic lawmakers, too, for not doing more to protect trans rights, which Republicans have been aggressively attacking for months.
“Democrats, grow a spine!” chanted the activists. “Trans lives are on the line!”
Chelsea Manning joins other trans rights activists in a protest outside of Speaker Mike Johnson’s office over the GOP’s anti-trans policies. Jen Bendery
Capitol Police eventually showed up and arrested 15 of them. The group behind the protest, Gender Liberation Movement, was prepared for the arrests.
“Everyone deserves to use the restroom without fear of discrimination or violence. Trans folks are no different. We deserve dignity and respect and we will fight until we get it,” Raquel Willis, the group’s co-founder, said in a statement.
“In the 2024 election, trans folks were left to fend for ourselves after nearly $200 million of attack ads were disseminated across the United States,” she said. “Now, as Republican politicians try to remove us from public life, Democratic leaders are silent as hell.”
Manning, whose prison sentence was commuted in 2017 by former President Barack Obama, said she was participating in the protest because “every person deserves dignity and respect, both in daily life and in more symbolic places” like the U.S. Capitol building.
“As someone who has fought against similar rules, I know what it’s like to feel pushed aside and erased,” she said in a statement. “But I also know the incredible power and resilience our community has. I’m not here as a leader or a spokesperson but simply as another member of my community who shows up unconditionally to support my siblings in this fight. I will stand beside them no matter what. We didn’t start this fight, but we are together now.”
Johnson’s bathroom ban is broader than people may realize: It prohibits any transgender or nonbinary House lawmaker, staff member, intern or even visitors from the public from using a bathroom in the House complex — that includes the House side of the Capitol building and all House buildings — that corresponds with their gender identity.
It’s not clear at all how the speaker plans to enforce this.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) suggested to Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) that the only reason he imposed a transgender bathroom ban in the House was to stave off an ugly GOP fight on the House floor over moving anti-trans bills by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). Tom Williams via Getty Images
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, told HuffPost on Tuesday that he recently raised concerns with Johnson over his anti-trans bathroom policy, and that Johnson essentially told him the only reason he put it in place was to stave off a Republican fight on the House floor over Mace’s anti-trans bills.
Pocan said he did not expect the speaker to take any steps to enforce his policy, like stationing police officers at bathroom doors in the Capitol.
“No, of course not. I don’t think they think through policies, they just declare them,” said the Wisconsin Democrat. “But I think it was done in lieu of having an ugly public floor fight.”
When the speaker announced the ban last month, he stressed that each member of Congress has a private restroom in their office, and that “unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol.”
Johnson didn’t say anything about how the rules would be enforced.
“Women deserve women’s only spaces,” he said.
Pocan said he told Johnson he hoped there would be enough unisex restrooms throughout the Capitol complex.
“He was at least verbally sympathetic to, I think, the issue of having bathrooms available for people, and I think a recognition that, it’s not going to be trans legislation every month of the year,” he said.
Oddly, as transgender rights activists were on Capitol Hill on Thursday protesting Mace’s legislation, she was spotted wandering around a Senate building with a bullhorn.
A spokesperson for Mace, who absolutely loves media attention, did not respond to a request for comment on why she was walking around the other chamber with a bullhorn or whether it was related to trans rights activists condemning her legislation.
The South Carolina Republican later posted on social media what the bullhorn was for: reading aloud people’s Miranda rights outside of Capitol Police headquarters as trans rights protesters were being processed after their arrest.
“Protestors came to the Capitol today to protest my bathroom bill. Poor things got arrested. So, I have a special message for them,” reads her post.
