Johnson declines to say if transgender rep-elect is man or woman, says House to treat everyone with ‘respect’

House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to answer whether transgender Rep-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., is a man or a woman, vowing to “treat all persons with dignity and respect.” 

At the House GOP weekly press conference on Tuesday, a reporter asked Johnson, “Is freshman elect Sarah McBride a man or a woman?” 

“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. And I’m not going to engage in… silly debates about this. There’s a concern about uses of restroom facilities and locker rooms and all that. This is an issue that Congress has never had to address before. And we’re going to do that in a deliberate fashion, with member consensus on it. And we will accommodate the needs of every single person.” 

Fox News Radio Capitol Hill and White House correspondent Ryan Schmelz posed a follow-up question to Johnson, asking if he plans on bringing up a resolution brought by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., to ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol “and putting that into the rules package”? 

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, accompanied by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Nov. 19, 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“I’m not going to address the plans on any of that,” Johnson said. “I just told you what I’m going to say about the issue. I’m not going to engage in this. We don’t look down upon anyone. We treat everybody with dignity and respect. That’s a principle that I’ve pursued my whole life. And we will take care of this, you know, issue – a first impression for Congress – as we will any other thing. We will provide the appropriate accommodation for every member of Congress.” 

Mace 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.” It asserts that “allowing biological males into single-sex facilities, such as restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms designed for women jeopardizes the safety and dignity of Members, officers, and employees of the House who are female.” 

In X posts on Monday, McBride 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.” 

“Every day Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully, I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness,” McBride wrote.

Rep. Nancy Mace talks with reporters before a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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“The radical left is calling me an extremist for being a feminist fighting to protect the rights of women and girls,” Mace said in a follow-up video message shared to X on Tuesday. “If being a feminist makes me an extremist or bigot or a monster, I am totally here for it because I am going to fight like hell for every woman and every little girl across this country to protect you and to keep you safe.” 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Tuesday that she asked the men in the House Republican Conference what they were going to do to prevent biological males from using spaces reserved for biological females at the U.S. Capitol. 

Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, left, joins colleagues for a freshman class photo on the Capitol steps, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

“You know, Sarah McBride, as he calls himself, formerly Tim McBride, is a biological man, and he should not be using any of our restrooms in the Capitol, and that in our office buildings. But Nancy Mace’s resolution doesn’t go far enough,” Greene told reporters. “America gave a mandate at this election and said, not only are they sick of the open borders, the invasion, the out of control inflation, foreign wars, but they’re sick of the trans ideology being shoved down our throats. And it’s an attack on women and children all over the country.” 

Meanwhile, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., told reporters that the Democratic caucus supports McBride “100%,” and condemned the resolution brought by Mace. 

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“It’s just disgusting,” Garcia told reporters. “I was actually sick to my stomach when I read that yesterday. And I think it’s really unfortunate that someone is being attacked. She just got to Congress. She is going to use whatever restroom that she needs to use. This is just sick that we’re having to have this conversationn… I’ve heard disgust, to be honest, on both sides of the aisle. And so I hope that this just moves forward and let’s let her legislate and move on.”