Performative Bigotry Update
To follow up on my post from yesterday, via The Hill: Speaker Johnson announces policy barring trans women from Capitol bathrooms.
Under House rules, the Speaker has “general control” of facilities in the chamber, giving Johnson the authority to issue the policy surrounding bathrooms.
“All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” Johnson said. “It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol.”
“Women deserve women’s only spaces,” he added.
It seems worth noting that the private restrooms in Congressional offices are in other buildings, not in the US Capitol.
And to add insult to bigotry:
Johnson’s statement — which was made on Transgender Day of Remembrance, recognized annually to memorialize trans people who died due to anti-trans violence — comes days after Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a bill to bar transgender women from facilities on Capitol Hill that match their gender identity, a response to the election earlier this month of Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.).
And an update to the update, which is quite performative:
Does anyone remember Florida panhandle resident Crystal Minton?
She is finally getting her wish.
If a trans person gets subpoenaed by congress, is their refusal to provide appropriate bathroom facilities sufficient reason to refuse to appear?
@Stormy Dragon:
Johnson and Mace will tell you that they are providing appropriate bathroom facilities. The “real” problem is you and your existence.
That’s what people voted for.
Unfortunately, the next four years will not be good for the trans community. I expect bathroom bans to start popping up in states. The business community will probably just go along with them. The states will pass whatever laws they think they can get away with about gender-affirming care, and there is no reason to think the courts will be a backstop. Whatever pretense Roberts had made in the past about his “legacy” has ended and he can let his freak flag fly. And for now the Republicans think this is a winning issue.
But it’s okay because Mike Johnson says that trans people should be treated with dignity.
At the shelter I volunteer at, it gets sorted out organically with almost zero fuss and almost no staff intervention. You declare upon intake.
When you have no home, such concerns are tertiary at best if you care at all.
M to F trans folk have an easier go from the jump because females usually get a bed the day they show up, whereas males usually need to sleep on the floor of the common room for 3 to 7 days for a bed to free up for them.
Some people make rude comments about it. Most folks either don’t care or decide it’s not their business. Their have other shit to care about.
Homeless people, as a rule, are pretty highly accepting. Basically, no one gives a shit.
Whatever else one thinks of virtue signaling on the left, or tacky rainbow capitalism, or whatever, it’s so much better than performative assholery.
Shitty people with shitty values.
I’ve got a minor quibble on framing. The bigotry of Mace, Johnson, MTG, et al., is authentic and deeply held. They are shitty people with shitty values.
The trans targeting policy (with their accompanying statements about claiming it’s all about what women deserve) is what’s performative.
@Lucysfootball:
That’s already here and has been here for a while. Odessa, TX, just passed a bathroom bounty and almost immediately expanded it from just government buildings to all buildings. It’ll be funny when the first person snagged in the bounty will be a cis woman.
Again, Erin Reed:
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/final-pre-election-2024-anti-trans
Note, Texas and Florida are already do not travel states.
I’ve been on hormones since 2019 and “full time*” since March 9, 2020, as a rule, almost no one gives a shit. Hell, most people can’t tell I’m trans. Most people can’t tell if any one is trans, that’s why cis women keep getting snagged in these bathroom/sports bans. Most people don’t give a shit except for a tiny minority of freaks and weirdos who have decided to make other people’s lives hell because of their bs morality or their inability to actually do the work of dealing with themselves.
Where’s The Q to launch into a bitter, resentful tirade flogging hetero/male/white grievance propaganda that brainwashes weak people into believing it’s the Democrats who are obsessed with trans issues and identity politics, but how Trump Republicans are winning elections because they and “the working class” are not?
Right now, Democrats are preoccupied with confirming sane judges, with protecting our European cousins from Putin and Trump, and with Trump-proofing manufacturing jobs by deploying CHIPs & Science Act funding.
Right now, Trump and Republicans are preoccupied with trolling, with performative anti-trans hate, and with filling government jobs with unqualified pedophiles, criminals, extremists, drug addicts, Fox News hosts, and chaos agents.
Rest assured the reality and the discrepancy won’t be noticed or called out by the reflexive contrarions claiming Democrats only run on wokeness, or by the leftists claiming Democrats ignore working class “economic anxiety.”
@Beth:
Truth truthily truthed! All possible thumbs up from Luddite.
ETA
IMO their purported morality is equal to that offered by the Pharisees
PS, please stay safe and take care of yourself. Gonna be a rough ride in the good ol’ U S of A.
@Scott F.: I would politely push back and note that I don’t think performative has to mean you don’t believe what you are performing.
Mace is clearly putting on a performance, as is Johnson. I also think they are bigots. I don’t see it as mutually exclusive in the least.
It’s psychopath behavior to be defending women’s spaces while being in the party of Trump, Gaetz, and Hegseth.
I know I’ve shared this before, but I’m going to share it again:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DCnXqRZuuFb/?igsh=ZjloaHUza2MxOWk3
I’m obviously the wrong kind of woman. Also, to be blunt and crass, no, I’ve never had top surgery. Grew em myself. I wish I could make people feel the horror of knowing you have breasts, but not actually having them. I’m finally whole and I’m never going back.
@Beth:
Beth, thanks for sharing…I haven’t seen your insta before, and it’s moving as hell to see you come through as you.
Congresswoman McBride Announces She Will Comply With Rules Declaring Her a Man
@Modulo Myself:
Thank you. I intentionally chose to include pre-transition photos there. The thing that kills me about so many of those old photos is how dead behind the eyes I was. Transition and gender affirming care literally saved my life. At this point I’ve grown so much that there’s no way to stick this person in that shell.
The first time some beefy, unshaven trans man walks into the ladies’ room there, they are going to have a conniption, even though he is complying with the new rules.
Republicans are not great at thinking deeply about things.
@Tony W: I actually was thinking last night that staging a form of protest should go something like that. Pick a few random days at the Capitol, and just have hundreds or thousands of people–trans and not–use whichever bathroom is closest.
It’d have to be so many it’d be difficult to stem the tide, but honestly I am so fed up with this. Nancy Mace is a Disgrace should absolutely be a chant that takes hold. All federal spaces? How TF is she planning on enforcing this in national parks??
It’s odd that the party whose supporters crapped on the floor of the US Capital and smeared feces all of the walls are now telling everyone they are the one that should be in charge of bathroom policy?
“Performative” is the key here.
These laws aren’t meant to be logical or even enforceable. They are performative displays of hatred for an outgroup.
This doesn’t mean they don’t have awful outcomes, in fact to the contrary.
Everyone now is receiving the message that trans people are not full citizens and not entitled to dignity or respect.
@Modulo Myself: 100%!
@Beth: Thanks for sharing!
So. Up until today, those bathrooms were open to trans people. Who used them on a regular basis. With no objection or even notice from Nancy Mace.
This was the status quo for all federal building under Donald trump. Did Nancy Mace ever make a complaint or take notice? Did anyone?
@de stijl:
I am curious as to how it came to be that the women able to get a bed so fast, but the men are having to wait. What’s the background here that leads to this outcome? And what could be done by the shelter to enable men to have a bed on the day they show up?
@Tony W:
I wonder if some could risk participating a casual demonstration by having as many FtM persons show up as possible throughout some days/week to tour and be present, and throughout the day use the multi-person women’s bathroom (in small groups -of 2- for safety?) to highlight the BS nature of this restriction?
No signs, no chants, no tee shirts or other signals….but evidence of their AGAB in case there are calls from ‘concerned’ patrons about supposed men in the women’s room…
You know, I just had a delicious image float through my head, and I have no idea whether it will ever become a reality.
The image is of Sarah McBride waiting for the Speaker to walk into the Mens restroom and following him in, with a bright “Hi! Good morning!” and going to her stall.
I don’t even know if this is a good idea in the grand scheme of things, but it fills me with delight.
@Jay L Gischer: Bonus points if she spends the entire time in the loo chattering about tampons and makeup.
@Jen: I described this scenario to my wife, and she contributed the idea of rounding up other trans women and going to the Mens room in one of those traditional female expeditions to the bathroom.
She added, “you’ve heard of locker-room talk among men? Women are worse.”