Washington DC - Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has issued a scathing response to House Republicans' efforts to institute an anti-trans bathroom ban in the Capitol.

"What Nancy Mace and what Speaker Johnson are doing are endangering all women and girls, because if you ask them 'what is your plan on how to enforce this?' they won't come up with an answer," AOC told reporters Wednesday night.

"Frankly, all it does is allow these Republicans to go around and bully any woman who isn't wearing a skirt because they think she might not look woman enough," the New York representative said.

South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace on Monday introduced a resolution to prohibit transgender House members, officers, and employees from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed on Wednesday – Transgender Day of Remembrance – that he would push forward with a discriminatory rule to bar trans women from using women's restrooms.

"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," the Louisiana Republican said. "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," he added.

Mace and Johnson's transphobic rhetoric and actions are aimed at Representative-elect Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender person ever elected to Congress, but would apply to staffers and interns as well.

The attack also comes amid a rightwing assault on access to gender-affirming health care and a slew of other discriminatory laws and policies to bar transgender people from participating in public life.

Systemic discrimination against trans people – often exacerbated by poverty, racism, and sexism – creates the conditions for the continued epidemic of violence targeting transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary individuals.

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AOC blasted her House colleagues backing the bathroom ban, noting the dangerous implications of such a measure: "People have a right to express themselves, to dress how they want, and to be who they are, and if a woman doesn't look woman enough to a Republican, they want to be able to inspect her genitals to use a bathroom."

"They're doing this so Nancy Mace can make a buck and fundraise off an email," she said. "They're not doing this to protect people. They're endangering women. They're endangering girls of all kinds. And everybody should reject it. It's gross."