Sarah McBride is the subject of 'rank politics,' says trans ex-politician who faced bathroom ban in Italy
Former member of Parliament Vladimir Luxuria, said she relates to the controversy facing Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender person elected to the Congress.
Sarah McBride is the first openly transgender person elected to the U.S. Congress, but she is not the first trans politician to be banned from using the bathroom of her choice by a hostile fellow lawmaker.
Back in 2006 in Italy, newly elected Vladimir Luxuria was briefly barred from using the ladies' room when she took her seat in Parliament. She said her heart breaks for McBride, a Democrat from Delaware.
"They did that to me," Luxuria, 59, said in a telephone interview with NBC News from her home in Rome. "What is happening to Sarah McBride is rank politics."
Which bathroom McBride will be able to use in the next Congress became an issue last week when Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican and staunch supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, introduced a resolution to prohibit lawmakers and House employees from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.”
When asked if the move was specifically in response to McBride, Mace said, "yes and absolutely, and then some." Not long afterward, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is also a Republican and a Trump supporter, said he supports restricting “single-sex facilities” in the Capitol, including restrooms, to “individuals of that biological sex."
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