Pro-trans activists arrested in Capitol bathroom after Speaker Johnson ruled to protect women’s spaces

Protesters, including what appeared to be biological males, were arrested in the Capitol building after taking over a women’s bathroom in a pro-transgender demonstration.

The bathroom “sit-in” occurred near Speaker Mike Johnson’s office and was led by the Gender Liberation Movement.

A video posted by Libs of TikTok showed the scene in the bathroom.

Controversy about Capitol bathrooms began after Delaware elected the first-ever transgender “woman,” Democrat Sarah McBride, to Congress.  

Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, filed a resolution on Nov. 18 which would require people to use Capitol bathrooms according to their biological sex. 

“Never thought this would have to happen, but we are introducing a resolution banning biological men from entering protected spaces for women on Capitol grounds,” Mace wrote on social media. “Protecting biological women starts here and it starts now.”  

Speaker Johnson approved an order protecting single-sex facilities on Nov. 20, noting that gender neutral bathrooms were also available. McBride then said in a statement he would follow House rules, even if he disagreed with them. 

However, the pro-trans activists weren’t so compliant.  

The Gender Liberation Movement, which seeks to promote “the power to defy or transcend the gendered expectations that harm and limit us,” protested Mace and Johnson in a Capitol bathroom on Thursday before being arrested. 

According to Fox News, about 15 protesters were arrested on suspicion of “crowding, obstructing or incommoding” in the House, U.S. Capitol Police said. 

Later that day, Mace read the protesters their Miranda Rights outside police headquarters.  

“I’m not going to stand for a man, you know, someone with a penis [in] the women’s locker room. That’s not okay,” Mace had previously told reporters. “I’m a victim of abuse myself. I’m a rape survivor. I have PTSD from the abuse I’ve suffered at the hands of a man and I know how vulnerable women and girls are in private spaces.”