Peeing turns partisan as N.M. Republicans decry transgender bathroom use

Yahoo

11-07-2025

A proposal to construct a one-toilet restroom on the fourth floor of the New Mexico state Capitol is causing a big stink.
After the Legislature's Facilities Review Subcommittee approved a two-pronged plan Thursday to convert a dual shower and lactation room into a restroom and also build a dedicated lactation room, both on the fourth floor, Senate Republicans pooh-poohed the move.
"This addition would not have been necessary if the capitol's progressive policies had not permitted biological males to use the existing women's restroom, leading to numerous complaints by female employees and lawmakers during this spring's legislative session," they wrote in a news release.
Shawna Casebier, director of the Legislative Council Service, which is responsible for the care and maintenance of the Capitol, said during Thursday's meeting the request for a single-toilet restroom on the fourth floor stems from "various reasons," including "greater access" to a family-type restroom.
"Currently, there's only one family restroom in the building that is on the second floor," she said. Additionally, she said, the remodeled space would have room for an adult changing table — a changing station for people of various heights and weights who require help with toileting.
"There [have] also been over the years requests to incorporate an adult changing table into a restroom in the Capitol, and if this … proposal is approved, the intention would be to size it so that an adult changing table could be in that space."
Senate Minority Leader Bill Sharer, R-Farmington said in an interview after the meeting "the transgender issue" sparked the proposal. He called for a policy change that would bar transgender women from women's restrooms at the Capitol.
"The background is that there's a transgender — I don't know what the right terminology is, I'm not trying to insult anybody — but a transgender that's going into the women's restroom, and the women were upset by this, troubled by this, and so we tried to find other solutions here," he said.
Sharer said some women didn't mind that a transgender woman working at the Capitol was using the women's restroom.
"But some did and so this became an increasing problem, a serious morale issue problem, and the answer was, 'Too bad. He's a woman,' ' Sharer said.
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House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, speaks with Senate Majority Floor Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe; Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup; and Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, following a news conference in January.
In a joint statement, House Speaker Javier Martínez and Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, both Albuquerque Democrats, dismissed the Senate Republicans' concerns.
"State lawmakers have real work to do to make life better for the people of New Mexico and help protect them from the devastating impacts of President Trump's Big Brutal Bill, which will make life harder and more expensive for all of us," they said. "Policing public restrooms does not help New Mexicans who are worried about losing their health care, struggling to keep food on their tables, and keep up with rising costs."
During the 60-day session earlier this year, some legislative employees sent an anonymous letter to legislative leaders complaining about the person.
"Other women have encountered this person and have come out so upset that they were shaking from encountering a man in the women's restroom," the letter stated. "Telling someone that the solution is to use a restroom two floors down is pandering to one person and not the majority of the people using this facility."
Sharer said the transgender woman was asked to use the family restroom on the second floor of the Capitol.
"They said, 'I don't have to,' ' he said.
The solution to the strife, Sharer said, was to build "another one-holer" on the fourth floor.
"But it doesn't solve the problem of having all these women traumatized," he said. "From my perspective, it's not this one person that's the problem. It's the door that we've opened up because now any man can go in the women's restroom."
During Thursday's meeting, Sharer said he supported the two-pronged plan for a single-use restroom with an adult changing station and a lactation room. But he said the plan didn't solve the issue that has been the source of complaints and that he expects women to "line up in the hall" to use the single-use restroom because they're afraid to use the women's room.
"I've seen these studies that say half of all [New Mexicans] have been sexually assaulted, and that came from Source New Mexico, by the way," he said. "This isn't some right-wing nut job case that came up with these numbers."
Martinez and Stewart said everyone deserves to feel safe in the Roundhouse.
"Transgender people have been using restrooms consistent with their gender identity for decades without incident and existing laws already protect people in public spaces. The sudden focus on this issue is purely manufactured political controversy," they said.
Nathan Saavedra, Equality New Mexico's director of policy and people, also defended letting people use bathrooms according to their gender identity.
'These attacks against transgender women are not new, and they are certainly not about safety," Saavedra wrote in an email. "Peeing is not partisan, and it is also not gender-specific. ... What is actually dangerous, and causes real and present harm to people, to New Mexicans, is this consistent and inflammatory rhetoric that singles out an individual group of people for simply existing."
In a statement after Thursday's meeting, Sharer said, "it is wrong to subject women to traumatic and potentially dangerous situations for the sake of placating to a fringe minority."
"Peeing should not be partisan," he added. "But a small group of activists have forced this on the women of New Mexico."