Republican lawmaker trying to ban trans people from Congress toilets
A Republican lawmaker is trying to ban trans people from using the toilets in the US Capitol Building.
Iowa congressman Steve King tabled the amendment to a vital funding bill, in a bid to force Democrats to sign off on it.
The amendment specifies that “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to encourage, allow, or require any individual to use any bathroom other than the bathroom of the individual’s biological sex.”.
As the funding covers the entire legislative branch, the bill would bar trans people from using their preferred toilets in the Capitol and a number of other funded buildings.
The office buildings for the House and Senate and the Library of Congress would both be required to enforce a bathroom ban under the amendment, according to the Washington Blade.
David Stacy of the Human Rights Campaign said: “Today he’s proposing an amendment that would tell every Members’ transgender constituents they aren’t welcome to visit the Capitol, the Library of Congress, or a House or Senate office building.
“Surely the House of Representatives has important work it should be getting done for the American people instead of targeting transgender Americans.
“The House should reject this harmful and mean-spirited amendment.”
The Republican-controlled House Rules Committee will vote on the amendment tomorrow.
As Republicans control a majority in both Houses, there is little that Democrats can do if the party unites behind the bill, other than block the funding bill as a whole.
King recently offered to marry gay people to his lawnmower.
The Obama administration has intervened on LGBT rights last month after a string of laws attempted to roll back LGBT discrimination protections, purportedly to stop trans people from going to the bathroom.
The federal government wrote to every school in the US to advise them that they are obliged not to discriminate against trans people.
However, that hasn’t gone down well with hard-right Republicans – with GOP politicians in Oklahoma attempting to impeach Obama. 11 Republican-controlled states are also suing the President for his intervention.
