House GOP Takes Stand for Cultural Common Sense

Fresh off retaining their all-important majority, House Republicans are taking a critical stand against transgender ideology—a welcome sign that they are answering their mandate from voters and gearing up to wield their power on behalf of sound conservative principles and usher in a new era of cultural common sense in the face of left-wing gender insanity.

Although much of the national focus in recent weeks has been centered on President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks and policy agenda for his first 100 days in office, on Capitol Hill, GOP representatives are engaged in a quiet—but crucially important—battle against Democrats on transgender bathroom policies.

The controversy began with the election of Sarah McBride (D-DE), born Tim McBride, the first biological male to publicly identify as a female ever elected to serve in the U.S. Congress. Following McBride’s victory, Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC) promptly introduced a resolution to prohibit all men—regardless of how they dress or “identify”—from using women’s bathrooms at the U.S. Capitol.

“Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say. I mean, this is a biological man,” Mace said to reporters earlier this week, insisting that McBride “does not belong in women’s spaces, women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, period, full stop.”

“I’m the first woman to graduate from the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. If some guy in a skirt came by and said, ‘No, that’s my achievement,’ I’m going to be there and standing in the way and saying, ‘Hell no,’” Mace continued. “I’m not going to allow men to erase women or women’s rights.”

Mace later introduced federal legislation to preserve women’s spaces on federal property. The bill, titled the “Protecting Women’s Private Spaces Act,” would prohibit all individuals from using single-sex facilities that do not correspond with their God-given sex as determined by biology.

House Speaker Mike Johnson quickly rallied behind her, instituting a formal ban on “transgender”-identifying individuals using bathrooms that do not align with their sex. “All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings—such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms—are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” Johnson said in a statement. “It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol.”

“Women deserve women’s only spaces,” he concluded.

Predictably, following Johnson’s and Mace’s reaffirmation of this basic civilizational principle, the Democrat Party and corporate media flew into a fit of hysteria.

“This is not just bigotry, this is just plain bullying,” said Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). The Washington Post slammed Republicans for “setting a trap” on the issue and engaging in “unprompted cruelty” against transgender-identifying individuals. Teen Vogue claimed that Republicans are “openly obsessing over trans people.”

Moreover, Democrat House Leader Hakeem Jeffries rebuked Republicans for honing in on the issue at the expense of other national problems he deemed to be more pressing: “This is your priority?” he asked. Even McBride himself lamented the rule as a way to “distract from the real issues facing this country.”

Though Democrats like Jeffries—and even some centrist Republicans—are all too eager to dismiss the battle over gender ideology as a “distraction” from other political topics, in reality, our culture’s willingness to recognize—and uphold—natural sex and gender distinctions is of paramount civilizational importance. While no conservative of good will ever seeks to inflict undue “cruelty” against individuals suffering from gender dysphoria or other delusions about their own biology, America has a moral duty and a cultural imperative to defend these elementary facts of nature—because any society that cannot recognize sex differences is not worthy, or perhaps even capable, of republican self-government.

Female-only—as well as male-only—spaces remain indispensable to an America that champions strong families, healthy communities, and human flourishing. As Republicans prepare to formally take control of the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the White House just weeks from now, conservative leaders and those who surround them must not deviate from this elementary fact.

Thanks to the courage of figures like Speaker Johnson and Congresswoman Mace this week, Americans have every reason to be optimistic.

Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.