Chelsea Manning has been arrested along with more than a dozen others for storming the women’s restroom on Capitol Hill to protest Republicans’ transgender restroom ban.
Activists led by the Gender Liberation Movement gathered outside Speaker Mike Johnson’s office in the Cannon House Office Building on Thursday, holding banners reading “Flush Bathroom Bigotry and Congress Stop Pissing on Our Rights” and chanting “Speaker Johnson, Nancy Mace , our genders are not a debate!’
The demonstrators included Manning, a 36-year-old former Army intelligence analyst, who was taken into custody and charged with crowding, obstruction or incommodation, a Capitol Police spokesman said. told the New York Post.
“I am here today because every person deserves dignity and respect, both in everyday life and in more symbolic places like the U.S. Capitol,” Manning said. told CNN.
“As someone who has fought against similar rules, I know what it’s like to feel pushed aside and erased,” she continued. “But I also know the incredible strengths and resilience that our community has.
“I am not here as a leader or spokesperson, but simply as another member of my community who shows up unconditionally to support my brothers and sisters in this fight. I will stand by them no matter what.
“We didn’t start this fight, but we are together now.”
However, it was not Manning’s first arrest, after he was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 for leaking 750,000 pages of classified documents and videos about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks.
Notorious transgender military intelligence leaker Chelsea Manning arrested more than a dozen protesters on Capitol Hill on Thursday
Activists led by the Gender Liberation Movement gathered outside Chairman Mike Johnson’s office in the Cannon House Office Building
She was released in 2017 after receiving a commutation from then-President Obama.
Manning was born a biological male and went by the name Bradley Manning during the legal proceedings, but underwent gender-affirming care in prison and now identifies as a woman.
Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, referenced Manning’s past Thursday as she spoke out against the protests.
“From leaking state secrets to detecting leaks in the women’s restroom, it seems she just can’t get it right,” the 47-year-old congresswoman wrote on X.
She had previously sparked debate in the House of Representatives when she introduced a bill last month that would ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms on Capitol Hill, ahead of the swearing-in of newly elected transgender Democratic Representative Sarah McBride in January.
House Speaker Johnson later announced that McBride, of Delaware, would have to use the restroom of her biological gender.
“All sex facilities in the Capitol and House of Representatives office buildings – such as restrooms, locker rooms and locker rooms – are reserved for persons of that biological sex,” Johnson said in his statement.
“It is important to note that each member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol,” he continued. ‘Women deserve only women’s spaces.’
Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a bill last month that would ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms on Capitol Hill, ahead of the swearing-in of newly elected transgender Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride in January
Mace referenced Manning’s past when she spoke out against the protests on Thursday
The Gender Liberation Movement criticized Democrats on Thursday for not doing more to push back on these efforts. Roll Call Reports.
“The 2024 election saw transgender people left behind and nearly $200 million worth of attack ads distributed in the United States,” co-founder Raquel Willis said in a statement.
“As Republican politicians try to remove us from public life, Democratic leaders are incredibly silent.
“But we cannot transform bigotry and hatred by doing nothing,” she said. “We have to face it head-on.”
The protesters were even heard chanting, “Democrats, grow a spine, trans lives are at stake” before they were apprehended.
Co-founder Raquel Willis called out Democrats for not following transgender bathroom rules
Gabrielle Lipsky, a spokeswoman for Mace, told the Post that she believed the protesters “absolutely should have been apprehended” under the new rules.
“Progressive politics is the most regressive threat to women,” she said. “They just keep proving our point.
“They come here and make a public spectacle of it by deliberately putting men in our bathrooms to intimidate women.”
Mace had framed the bathroom debate as a matter of safety for female members of Congress.
“If being a feminist makes me an extremist, I’m all for it,” the South Carolina Republican sharply told a reporter.
‘I am a victim of abuse myself. I am a rape survivor. I have PTSD from the abuse I suffered at the hands of a man, and I know how vulnerable women and girls are in private spaces.
“So I’m absolutely 100 percent going to stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a ladies’ room, in our locker rooms (or) in our locker rooms.”