On Wednesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) said that there needs to be a discussion about bathroom usage “But when Republicans come in and just try to attack the first transgender woman in Congress by apparently putting guards around bathrooms or whatever, this is really going too far.” He also cited Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-SC) history as the first female graduate of The Citadel and stated, “There were a lot of men at The Citadel who said she didn’t belong there, there’s no room for women in the military. I’m sure she had trouble just figuring out what bathroom she was going to be allowed to use, coming as the first woman at an all-male institution. So, Nancy Mace should know a little bit about what it means to break barriers, to be the first transgender woman in Congress.”
Moulton said that the bathroom issue “is very different than the competitive sports issues we’re talking about, because we’re not talking about men using women’s restrooms, we’re talking about transgender women using women’s restrooms. That’s an important distinction. And it is true that trans people exist.”
Host Leland Vittert then cut in to ask, “[D]o Democrats, though, not have to acknowledge that there [are] a lot of women — and, frankly, men, too — but there [are] a lot of women who see a trans woman who still has the biological parts of being a man and they see a man and they don’t want that man in their restroom?”
Moulton responded, “I am not a bathroom expert. Like, I think the reality is that we need to be able to have a discussion about this. But when Republicans come in and just try to attack the first transgender woman in Congress by apparently putting guards around bathrooms or whatever, this is really going too far. And it’s trying to deny that she exists.”
Moulton continued, “Now, let’s look at Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), for example. She’s the first woman to graduate from The Citadel. There were a lot of men at The Citadel who said she didn’t belong there, there’s no room for women in the military. I’m sure she had trouble just figuring out what bathroom she was going to be allowed to use, coming as the first woman at an all-male institution. So, Nancy Mace should know a little bit about what it means to break barriers, to be the first transgender woman in Congress. And yet, she’s just twisting this piece of — she’s taking this opportunity to just attack someone. I think we need to think back to where we were with gay rights like 30, 40 years ago, right? There were a lot of people who said, gays don’t exist, they’re deviants, they just need to be re-educated. And we’ve kind of — we’ve come around to say, no, they do exist, you should be able to marry whom you love. We’ve got some work to do here. But this is an important debate to have.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett