House Republicans' decision to restrict gender-specific bathroom usage has been met with unrest by some of the more progressives in the lower chamber of Congress.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)'s decision to prohibit transgender people from accessing restrooms on Capitol Hill that correspond to their chosen gender identity, instead of the biological one, has been condemned by Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has defended transgender Rep. Sarah McBride (born, Tim McBride).

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-NV) and Johnson have introduced new restrictions that prohibit transgender persons from utilizing the restrooms and other facilities in the Capitol and House office buildings that correspond to their chosen gender identity. This includes members, officers, and employees of Congress, as Breitbart News reported.

The first openly transgender person to be elected to the United States House of Representatives from Delaware, Sarah McBride, is the intended target of the campaign. McBride is scheduled to assume office in January.

From AOC

Standing up for McBride, Ocasio-Cortez blasted Republican bill backers Mace and the planned limits, claiming that they are "endangering all women and girls" in an interview she gave to reporters on Wednesday night.

“If you ask them what is your plan to enforce this is, they won’t come up with an answer,” the New York lawmaker said.

“What it inevitably results in are women and girls who are primed for assault because people are going to want to check their private parts in suspecting who is trans and who is cis and who is doing what.”

“And so the idea that Nancy Mace wants little girls and women to drop trou[sers] in front of who? An investigator? Who would that be? Because she wants to suspect and point fingers at who she thinks is trans?” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It is disgusting.”

Rep. @AOC on Rep. Mace's transgender bathroom measure:

"They're doing this so that Nancy Mace can ... fundraise off an email. They're not doing this to protect people. They're endangering women, they're endangering girls of all kinds. And everybody should reject it. It's gross." pic.twitter.com/qxenQsQpQs

— Kevin Frey (@KevinFreyTV) November 21, 2024

At the end of her speech, Ocasio-Cortez accused her Republican colleagues of trying to "make a buck and fundraise off an email" by pursuing these initiatives.

“They’re not doing this to protect people,” she said. “They’re endangering women, they’re endangering girls of all kind, and everybody should reject it, it’s gross.”

From Mace

Later Mace responded to Ocasio-Cortez, telling Fox News, “I love living rent-free in AOC’s tiny little brain,” and went on to reject the claims that she is endangering women.

By claiming she is "not here to fight about bathrooms" but rather "here to fight for Delaware and to bring down costs facing families," McBride addressed the ban and the GOP speaker's backing for it earlier on Wednesday.

“Like all members, I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them,” she said, adding that “this effort to distract from the real issues facing this country hasn’t distracted me over the last several days."

From the Speaker

All of the Capitol and House office buildings' single-sex facilities were "reserved for individuals of that biological sex," according to a statement Johnson released on Wednesday morning in favor of the campaign.

Online, McBride's allies and trans rights advocates have defended her and denounced Mace's actions.