TRANSCRIPT
This group is marching towards the US Capitol on the Transgender Day of Remembrance, observed each year across the world on November 20.
This year's observance is especially sombre, as transgender rights once again become a political flashpoint.
Last year, politicians in 37 states introduced at least 142 bills to restrict gender-affirming healthcare for transgender and gender-expansive people, nearly three times as many as the previous year.
And as Laura Barone-Lopez reported on US network PBS, the election campaign that saw Donald Trump returned to the White House featured a slew of anti-trans rhetoric.
REPORT: "Less than one percent of the US population identifies as transgender. But this election year, Republicans have spent a considerable amount of money on ads demonising transgender people. From October 7th to the 20th, Trump's campaign and pro-Trump groups spent an estimated $95 million - and more than 41 percent of those ads were anti-trans."
Now the election is over, an anti-trans bill has already been proposed before the new Republican majority Congress takes shape, by South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace.
It would ban members, officers, and employees of the House from using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.
"I want to see this in the House rules package. I want to make sure that no men are in women's private spaces."
The congresswoman has openly admitted the bill is squarely aimed at the first transgender person elected to Congress - Sarah McBride.
REPORTER: " Is this effort in response to Congresswoman McBride's to Congress?”
MACE: "Yes, and absolutely and then some."
The Democrats say they're puzzled and alarmed by the bill.
Newly re-elected Democrat house leader Hakeem Jeffries has argued it's a strange way to start off the new Congress.
"The notion that this incoming small House Republican conference majority is beginning to transition to the new Congress by bullying a member of Congress. This is what we're doing? This is the lesson that you've drawn from the election in November? This is your priority?"
And for Sarah McBride herself, this is part of a culture war that no-one but the Republicans are fighting.
"I think what we have to all recognise here is that when a politician tries to take an issue that impacts a handful of people, in a handful of states, and turn it into the most important issue in an election, everyone has to ask why. And the answer to that question is that Donald Trump was trying to divide and distract from the fact that he has absolutely no policy solutions for the issues that are actually keeping voters up at night."
House Speaker Mike Johnson has been reluctant to confirm how he intends to handle the issue at a press conference earlier this week.
He has said only that Congress would consider the issue carefully.
"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 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 a member consensus on it, and we will accommodate the needs of every single person. That's all I’m going to say about that.”
But Shoshana Goldberg, the director of Public Education and Research at Human Rights Campaign, says it cannot just be left at that.
"Just the existence of these bills and the messages that they send and the rhetoric that are associated with them are causing LGBT adults to feel unsafe."
For Jeff McMillan from the Associated Press, the bill is not regarded as a fringe bill from a fringe member of Congress.
He says the trans community's fears about what it could mean - and the violence it might encourage - are well-founded.
"The Williams Institute at UCLA Law estimates there are more than a million and a half transgender people ages 13 and older in the United States. And it says that trans people are over four times more likely than others to be victims of violence."
He says advocates believe this bill is part of Trump's second term federal agenda that openly draws on anti-LGBTIQ plus rhetoric from Project 2025.
"Advocates say that politicians trying to restrict transgender rights are taking advantage of the fact that most Americans don’t know a trans person or just don’t know a lot about transgender people in general. Opposition to those rights was a focal point of political campaigns by President-elect Donald Trump and many other candidates around the country. And Trump has pledged to roll back protections for transgender students and others once he takes office."
Nancy Mace has already picked up on those signals, announcing plans for a legislative strategy to exclude trans people from more facilities.
"I'm working on legislation that would ban it on federal property. I'm working on legislation - if you are a school that is funded by the federal government, this shouldn't go on... It's not going to happen. Not on my watch."
