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Capitol Hill Bathroom Controversy Continues: 15 Trans Activists Arrested for Illegally Protesting

December 7, 2024

Have you ever heard of a “bathroom sit-in”? Apparently, it’s the term used to describe a form of protest in which transgender activists crowd or obstruct a bathroom space to try and prove a point. In this case, roughly 15 people from the Gender Liberation Movement (GLM) occupied the bathroom across from House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Thursday to protest what some have referred to in similar contexts as “common-sense” legislation.

This is the latest in the saga on Capitol Hill concerning whether trans-identifying people can use the restroom that aligns with their so-called “gender identity.” It all started with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) who refused to sit idly by and let trans-identifying biological men such as Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.) utilize the women’s restroom. One thing led to another, and it didn’t take long for Speaker Johnson to announce that “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.” And now, the trans activists are simply not happy.

A total of two groups graced the halls — or the bathrooms — of the Capitol. Their protest featured signs that read “Stop pissing on our rights” and “Flush bathroom bigotry.” Some also wore shirts that said: “We Just Need to Pee: Let us Be.” GLM co-founder, Raquel Willis, shared with the outlet Mother Jones, “It was important to show up in a radically defiant way and let the world know, and let our electeds know, that we are not going to allow this disrespect and this disregard for our lives.” According to Willis, “Trans folks deserve access to the restrooms like anyone else.” Notably, no one has been outright banned from being able to use the restroom.

Leading his own group was Chelsea Manning, “a former soldier who claimed transgender status after being convicted in 2013 for leaking secret military information during the Iraq War.” He told CNN, “I’m here today because every person deserves dignity and respect, both in daily life and in more symbolic places like the U.S. Capitol.” A video posted by the conservative account Libs of TikTok went viral on X of the activists dancing in the Capitol Hill bathroom. Mace reposted the video, stating that those same people showed up outside her office later that day. “One of them told my staff it’s bad to have sex-based bathrooms because cancer patients lose their hair and can look like the wrong sex,” she wrote. “Anything but the truth from the Radical Left.”

Their actions, however, were not free from consequences. According to Capitol Police, “Approximately 15 people were arrested for D.C. Code § 22–1307 — Crowding, Obstructing, or Incommoding — for illegally protesting inside the Cannon House Office Building.” Among those arrested was Manning. In response to these circumstances, Mace’s spokeswoman Gabrielle Lipsky told the New York Post, “Progressive politics is the most regressive threat to women. They just keep proving our point. They come here and make a public spectacle out of putting men in our bathrooms intentionally to intimidate women.” 

Family Research Council’s Meg Kilgannon also offered a comment. Drawing special attention to the increased push against transgenderism, she told The Washington Stand, “With this storming of the Congressional ladies' room by men in dresses, the era of self-reflection for the T-wing of LGBTQ+ appears to be over.”

Kilgannon elaborated, “There was some talk [and] introspection after the 2024 election and the decisive role that rejecting the demands of transactivists played. ‘Latinx’ as a term seems to have been removed from the leftist vernacular, but we can’t seem to remove the men from women’s private spaces.” The problem, she continued, is not just that “they insist on being there, [but] they must be dragged out in restraints.” According to Kilgannon, this bathroom fiasco “is a useful demonstration of why militant and mentally unwell men are not welcome in women’s private spaces.”

“[M]oreover,” she concluded, it illustrates “why honorable men assure women have private spaces in the first place.”

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.



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