Transgender beauty queen Kataluna Enriquez slams the Capitol bathroom ban aimed at Sarah McBride
Sarah McBride became the first ever openly trans person elected to Congress this month, and unfortunately she was greeted with a cruel bathroom ban. Republican Nancy Mace (who, curiously, once was pro-LGBTQ+) and Speaker Mike Johnson targeted her by banning all transgender women from the women’s bathrooms at the Capitol. McBride’s response was a calm, “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms, I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families.”
So other people are expressing fury on McBride’s behalf. Zooey Zephyr, the first trans person elected to the Montana legislature, stated on Nov. 20, “This rage-baiting is so detached from the day-to-day reality of being trans. It’s obsessive and unhinged and an endless reminder that these folks have nothing to offer but fear and rage.” And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a tweet pointing out the hypocrisy of Republicans, saying, “Women know that men don’t scheme to “dress like girls” to assault them. They do it every day in broad daylight. And the ones in power protect each other to keep it quiet. Just ask the House Ethics Committee. Or the President-elect of the United States.”
Now Kataluna Enriquez, the first trans winner of Miss Nevada US, has given her opinion. She’s also outraged at the discrimination. She told celeb gossip website TMZ on Nov 21, “I think the whole thing is just honestly disgusting and at this point it’s just tired. There’s so many other issues that we need to focus on in this country instead of the divisive and fake narrative towards trans people.” When Republicans could have been discussing healthcare and housing, they instead chose to spend their time bullying a small demographic.
Enriquez praised McBride for her focus on “actually just being there to do the job,” and went on, “And for me as a trans woman myself, I would do exactly the same thing.” She pointedly added that she always used the bathroom with “no other intentions,” just like the vast majority of trans people and indeed cis people. She then focused on the elephant in the room, the one Republicans would prefer we didn’t talk about: the fact that Donald Trump is guilty of rape and sexual abuse.
“I see right through the insecurities and the hatred, especially when you’re in support of having a sexual predator run this country,” Enriquez told Republicans. She then explained that the bathroom ban was dangerous not just to trans women, but to cis ones “who may not present feminine” too, and that asking her to share a bathroom with cis men while trans men used the women’s toilets made no sense. “You’re asking trans men who are bearded, who wear men’s clothing, to use the women’s restroom,” she said. These are sentiments shared by many.
Unfortunately, McBride is still being mistreated by transphobic Republicans. But she remains committed to her job first and foremost, as she reiterated in a interview with CBS’s Face the Nation on Nov. 24. “Every single time we hear them say the word ‘trans,’ look what they’re doing with their right hand. Look at what they’re doing to pick the pocket of American workers, to fleece seniors by privatizing Social Security and Medicare,” she said.
Sarah McBride will actually have her own private bathroom in her office. All this cruelty was for nothing—nothing except hurting trans people further. Which is exactly what Republicans and MAGAs want.
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