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Ed. note: This story was updated at 4:35 p.m. ET with more information.
Two weeks after Capitol Hill exploded over Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pushing to ban trans people from using the correct bathrooms on federal property, approximately 15 activists were arrested for protesting the policy by “sitting-in” in a women’s bathroom across from Johnson’s Congressional office, according to event organizers.
Teen Vogue was present as organizers set up banners on the ground in front of Johnson’s front door and another in the bathroom right across from it, and as they were quickly carried off under arrest, wrists in zip ties. They were threatened by Capitol police with potential sexual misconduct charges over the bathroom occupation, according to the 19th.
Arrestees – organizers from LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive justice organizations, as well as individuals like activist Chelsea Manning – chanted: “Speaker Johnson, Nancy Mace: Our bodies are not a debate!” (The activists are currently detained and any potential charges are pending.) In response, in a video posted to Mace's Twitter/X account, she was recorded speaking into a megaphone outside the Capitol police precinct where the protesters were being held. In it, she refers to them using a transphobic slur and read the Miranda rule.
The action, organized by the Gender Liberation Movement, “demand[ed] elected officials block the proposed expanded bill H. RES. 1579 that would ban bathroom access for trans people in all federal buildings and could extend to educational institutions, museums, and other public landmarks,” per the press release. It notes that while the policy was intended to target Delaware Rep. Sarah McBride (D), it would impact “trans people at every level of government and in every sector of society,” as well as “cisgender people who are perceived as gender non-conforming.”
One 25-year-old protester, who goes by Butch Molly, told Teen Vogue before the action, “I'm pretty androgynous, so no matter what bathroom, what locker room I'm in, someone thinks I'm in the wrong room no matter where I am. It's like, how do I piss in public? How do I go outside and live a life? What if I have to go to the bathroom and I'm out doing my errands or whatever? That sh*t really sucks.” Butch Molly was arrested with the other 15 protesters.
Chants also called out the Democratic Party for what trans advocates see as inaction in responding to the well-funded anti-trans propaganda being pushed by conservatives, chanting, “Democrats grow a spine/Trans lives are on the line!”
“In the 2024 election, trans folks were left to fend for ourselves after nearly $200 million of attack ads were disseminated across the United States,” journalist and GLM co-founder Raquel Willis, among those arrested, said. “Now, as Republican politicians, try to remove us from public life, Democratic leaders are silent as hell. But we can’t transform bigotry and hate with inaction. We must confront it head on. Democrats must rise up, filibuster, and block this bill.”
