Protesters Raise Stink in Capitol Restroom

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Last month Republican Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina decided that the transexual community would be a good vehicle for her to use to draw in some campaign donations, and she set about vilifying the already extremely marginalized minority group.  To make her point (and monetize her efforts) Mace targeted a new member of Congress, Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware, the first openly transexual member of Congress.  Mace declared in a  highly self-righteous snit (or was it a tweet?) that people using the restrooms in the nation's Capitol building be permitted to only use restrooms which matched the gender to which they had been born.

Not to be outdone, foghorn Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican (aren't they always!) jumped on Mace's bandwagon by telling a closed GOP conference meeting that she would fight a transgender woman who tried to use one of the ladies' restrooms in the House.  Marge, of the "bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body" Greene's, apparently fancies herself to be a scrapper.

For her part, Representative McBride said that she was in Congress to serve her constituents and that members of the GOP were trying to "manufacture a crisis."  Well, duh.

House Speaker Mike Johnson quickly issued a House Rule that backs up the position of Mace and Greene saying that biological males have to use male restrooms and biological females must use female restrooms.  The procedures for genitalia inspections were not outlined in Speaker Johnson's rule.

Last Thursday a small group of fifteen or so  transexual women protestors showed up at the Cannon Office Building and made their way into the ladies's restroom just outside of Speaker Mike Johnson's office.  They were promptly escorted from the building by Capitol police and arrested.  There is no word yet on whether the incoming President's plan to pardon Capitol protesters on "Day One" of his administration will include them or not.

Well known transgender rights and government accountability activist Chelsea Manning was a member of the protest.  Manning, who was arrested in 2013 for sharing more that 700,000 pages of government secrets on the information-sharing site Wikileaks - and then pardoned by President Obama nearly four years later, was quoted in the press after the mass arrest last Thursday as saying:

"I'm here today because every person deserves dignity and respect, both in daily life and in more symbolic places like the US Capitol.  As someone who has fought against similar rules, I know what it's like to be pushed aside and erased.  But I also know the incredible power and resilience our community has.  I'm not here as a leader or a spokesperson, but simply as another member of my community who shows up unconditionally to support my siblings in this fight.  I will stand beside them no matter what.  We didn't start this fight, but we are together now." 

While I am generally a person who eschews fisticuffs, perhaps Ms. Greene has a point.  Maybe a cage match between Mean Marge Greene and Transparent Chelsea Manning would be as good a way as any to to decide who can use which toilets in the US Capitol.  

My wager will be placed on Chelsea Manning because brains will out - especially over bacon grease and grits!