House Speaker Mike Johnson made a clarification on Tuesday after previously declining to answer a reporter’s question on whether transgender Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., is a man or a woman.
“I just want to make a statement for all of you here and be very clear: I was asked a question this morning at the leadership gaggle, and I rejected the premise because the answer is so obvious,” Johnson told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday afternoon. “For anybody who doesn’t know my well-established record on this issue, let me be unequivocally clear: A man is a man, and a woman is a woman. And a man cannot become a woman.”
“That said, I also believe that’s what Scripture teaches, what I just said. But I also believe that we treat everybody with dignity, and so we can do and believe all those things at the same time,” he added. “And I wanted to make that clear for everybody because there are lots of questions. But that’s where I stand. I’ve stood there my whole life, and those are facts.”
At the House GOP weekly press conference earlier Tuesday, a reporter had asked Johnson, “Is freshman elect Sarah McBride a man or a woman?”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a press conference alongside other House GOP leadership at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 19, 2024. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Look, I’m not going to get into this. We welcome all new members with open arms who are duly elected representatives of the people,” Johnson responded. “I believe it’s a … command that we treat all persons with dignity and respect, and we will.”
The question came after Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a resolution on Monday that moves to prohibit members, officers and employees of the House from using “single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.”
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., arrives for a House Republican caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 19, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Asked if the resolution was in response to McBride coming to Congress, Mace said Tuesday, “Yes, and absolutely, and then some.”
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“I’m not going to stand for a man, you know, someone with a penis in the woman’s locker room, that’s not OK,” Mace said. “I’m a victim of abuse myself. I’m a rape survivor. I have PTSD from the abuse I suffered at the hands of a man. And I know how vulnerable women and girls are in private spaces. So I’m absolutely, 100% going to stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a woman’s restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms. I will be there fighting you every step of the way.”
Outside the Capitol later Tuesday, Mace said Johnson told her on Monday that he would add her resolution to the House rules package.
Reps.-elect Sarah Elfreth, D-Md., Sarah McBride, D-Del.,, and Emily Randall, D-Wash., and other congressional freshmen of the 119th Congress gather for a group photograph on Nov. 15, 2024, on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“And if it doesn’t end up there, I will amend the house rules package,” Mace said. “And I also have a privilege motion ready to go if it’s not in the House rules package for 119th Congress. I will force a vote on this. This is not okay. I’m a survivor of sexual abuse. The idea of having a man in a women’s restroom, locker room, or changing room is repulsive, and I will not allow it. And in fact, I’m not stopping here. This doesn’t end with Capitol Hill. I’m filing legislation tonight. You guys can wait with bated breath for what that’s about. But I am not going to allow this. I’m going to ensure that every woman and girl across the country is protected from this insanity.”
“And today I’m receiving death threats from men pretending to be women who are willing to kill me over my right and women’s rights that I’m fighting for,” Mace added. “It’s insanity. It’s nonsense. And I’m going to stand up and fight back against the radical left all day long, every day, 365 days a year. Good luck. Come at me, bro.”
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In X posts on Monday, McBride had derided the resolution as “a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing.”