(LifeSiteNews) — Donald Trump’s election as the 47th president of the United States, conservative commentators crowed that the transgender movement was definitively beaten. Trump had, after all, run explicitly against certain aspects of the transgender agenda, and the MAGA campaign had poured cash into ads that concluded — brilliantly — that “Kamala Harris is for They/Them. President Trump is for you.” The post-election data clearly indicates that Harris’ support for the transgender agenda helped sink her campaign.
Despite signs that the Democratic Party would like to de-transition, news of the transgender movement’s death is premature. Trump campaigned against the most unpopular aspects of the transgender agenda — males in female sports, changing rooms, and other private spaces; sex change “treatments” for minors; taxpayer-funded transitions for prisoners. The real test of the transgender movement’s hold on public opinion is whether Americans will accept and affirm the chosen identities of trans-identifying adults.
That is the question at the center of the latest transgender culture war. LGBT activist, former Delaware senator, and U.S. representative-elect Tim “Sarah” McBride is the first trans-identifying person to be elected to Congress. McBride worked for the Human Rights Campaign, one of the most radical LGBT groups in the country, and his victory is being trumpeted as a silver lining for the LGBT movement as “the first transgender woman elected to U.S. Congress.”
McBride “presents” as a woman. Were the Republicans sincere when they stated that they wanted to keep men out of female spaces? Or was it merely a campaign gimmick?
Thus far, it looks like the GOP means it. South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace introduced a resolution on Monday that explicitly prohibits men in female spaces. The resolution states 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(.)”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson enacted the new rule on Wednesday, November 20, stating that all single-sex facilities in both the Capitol and the House will be reserved for people “of that biological sex” and emphasizing the once uncontroversial belief that “women deserve women’s only spaces.” LGBT activists and Democrats (I repeat myself) are claiming that McBride is being “targeted.” Mace responded, “I am not going to stand for a man, you know someone with a penis in the women’s locker room – that’s not okay.”
She also referenced her own experience as a sexual assault survivor, noting that “I’ve suffered at the hands of a man, and I know how vulnerable women and girls are in private spaces.” Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez condemned the move as “not just bigotry” but “plain bullying”; Mace shot back that “Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say in this. If you’re a biological man, you shouldn’t be in women’s restrooms.” McBride responded on X Wednesday by saying that the entire issue is a distraction, stating that “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families.” Of course, McBride has engaged in the “distraction” plenty himself, referencing his trans identity many times in the past weeks.
The Democrats will no doubt be tempted to push the issue. As the only trans-identifying member of Congress and a male who presents as female, it will be easy to portray McBride as a victim of bullying. This card is already being played by LGBT activists. The truth, of course, is that McBride can identify however he likes — but to demand access to female facilities is to de facto force everyone else to affirm that identity and thus transgender ideology writ large. The McBride case gets to the very heart of the matter, and the GOP’s ability to hold firm on this issue will indicate their commitment to rejecting the tenets of gender ideology.
As Michael Knowles put it, “There’s no avoiding the Tim McBride fight, Republicans. Either you let him into the women’s bathroom and implicitly embrace the preposterous ideology of transgenderism, or you tell him he can’t strut into the ladies’ room, and the press calls you mean. Those are the only options.”
