About 15 protestors affiliated with the Gender Liberation Movement were arrested on Thursday for protesting the anti-trans bathroom policy that was introduced by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and enacted last month by U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning and social justice advocates Raquel Willis and Renee Bracey Sherman were among those who were arrested in the women’s bathroom and the hallway outside Johnson’s office in the Cannon House Office Building.

Demonstrators held banners reading “FLUSH BATHROOM BIGOTRY” and “CONGRESS: STOP PISSING ON OUR RIGHTS!” They chanted, “SPEAKER JOHNSON, NANCY MACE, OUR GENDERS ARE NO DEBATE!” and “WHEN TRANS FOLKS ARE UNDER ATTACK WHAT DO WE DO? ACT UP, FIGHT BACK!”

Protests began around 12:10 p.m. ET. Within 30 minutes, Capitol Police arrived on the scene, began making arrests, and cleared the area. A spokesperson told Axios the demonstration was an illegal violation of the D.C. code against crowding, obstructing or incommoding.

Mace and her flame-throwing House GOP allies have said the bathroom policy was meant to target Sarah McBride, the Delaware state senator who will become the first transgender member of Congress after she is seated in January.

LGBTQ groups, elected Democrats, and others have denounced the move as a bigoted effort to bully and intimidate a new colleague, with many asking how the policy’s proponents would enforce the measure.

Outside her office in the Longworth House Office Building, the Washington Blade requested comment from Mace about the protests and arrests.

“Yeah, I went to the Capitol Police station where they were being processed, so I’ll be posting what I said shortly,” the congresswoman said.

Using an anti-trans slur, Mace posted a video to her X account in which she says, “alright, so some tranny protestors showed up at the Capitol today to protest my bathroom bill, but they got arrested — poor things.”

“So I have a message for the protestors who got arrested,” the congresswoman continued, and then spoke into a megaphone as she read the Miranda warning. “If you cannot afford an attorney — I doubt many of you can — one will be provided to you at the government’s expense,” she said.

“Everyone deserves to use the restroom without fear of discrimination or violence. Trans folks are no different. We deserve dignity and respect and we will fight until we get it,” Gender Liberation Movement co-founder Raquel Willis said in a press release.

“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,” she said. “Now, as Republican politicians, try to remove us from public life, Democratic leaders are silent as hell.”

Willis continued, “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.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has barred transgender women from using women’s restrooms on the House side of the U.S. Capitol and the House office buildings, his office announced in a statement on Wednesday.

The move comes on Transgender Day of Remembrance, which memorializes those who have been murdered as a consequence of transphobia.

“All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House office buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” Johnson said.

The speaker added, “It is important to note that each member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol. Women deserve women’s only spaces.”

Asked how the measure would be enforced, Johnson declined to specify, telling reporters that “like all House policies, it’s enforceable.”

Wednesday’s announcement comes two days after U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a proposal to exclude trans women from women’s restrooms on Capitol Hill.

The congresswoman said her policy was partially designed to target incoming Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride, who will be the first trans member of Congress when she is seated in January.

Mace and other House Republicans who endorsed her proposal, like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) used transphobic language when discussing McBride and deliberately misgendered her.

McBride responded on X that the effort is a distraction from the more pressing work in which Congress should be engaged.

Several House Democrats leapt to her defense, from the openly gay and lesbian members of the Congressional Equality Caucus to the Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), with the latter two calling the bill “bullying.”

Speaking with reporters after a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday, far-right U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) “committed to me, there in the conference, that Sarah McBride will not be using our restrooms.”

On Monday, less than two weeks after the Delaware state senator was elected to become the first transgender member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) proposed a resolution to prohibit House members and staffers from “using single-sex facilities” in the U.S. Capitol and House office buildings “other than those corresponding to their biological sex.”

In an exchange with Capitol Hill reporters and on social media, Mace confirmed that the policy was deliberately meant to target McBride.

Responding to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Johnson shared an exchange between the speaker and reporters at the weekly GOP stakeout press conference:

Pablo Manriquez: Do you think Sarah McBride is a man or a woman?

Johnson: Look, I’m not going to get into this. We welcome all new members with open arms who are duly elected representatives of the people. I believe it’s a it’s a command that we treat all persons with dignity and respect, and we will, and I’m not going to engage in in in silly debates about this. There’s a concern about the uses of restroom facilities and locker rooms and all that. This is an issue that Congress has never had to address before, and we’re going to do that in deliberate fashion with member consensus on it, and we will accommodate the needs of every single person. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

Ryan Schmelz (FOX): Do you plan on bringing Nancy Mace’s transgender bill and putting that into the rules package?

Johnson: We’re not, going to address the plans on any of that. I just told you what I’m going to say about the issue. I’m not going to engage in this. We don’t look down upon anyone. We treat everybody with dignity and respect. That’s a principle that I pursued my whole life. And we will take care of this, you know, issue of first impression for Congress, as we will any other thing. We’ll provide appropriate accommodation for every member of Congress.

The Republican leader told Axios on Monday that “We’re going to talk about” Mace’s proposal. “We’re working on the issue.”

After she introduced the resolution on Monday, congressional Democrats and LGBTQ groups were quick to denounce the effort as a bigoted and unprovoked attack against a freshman colleague.

Human Rights Campaign spokesperson Delphine Luneau shared a statement with the Washington Blade on Tuesday:

“Speaker Mike Johnson claims that he’ll treat all lawmakers with ‘dignity and respect,’ but actions speak louder than words. The voters of Delaware sent Sarah McBride to represent them in Congress, and the House has an obligation and duty to treat her with humanity and decency. The proposed House rule that targets her and other trans officers and staff members must be rejected, and the nation’s lawmakers need to focus on doing their jobs to deliver results for the voters they represent.”