Johnson, Mace want transgender bathroom ban. How on earth will they enforce it?

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but you appear a bit mannish,” said the attendant outside the restroom. “Would you mind waiting here while I find someone to check your genitals?”

If you can imagine that scenario and find it perfectly reasonable, I’m concerned. If the idea of a bathroom “anatomy checker” seems both laughable and insane, then you probably realize such rules can’t be reasonably enforced.

Creating edicts we don’t enforce is a greater American problem than restroom oversight.

I’ve been perfectly clear that gender identity is, at its core, a matter of free speech. From a constitutional view, one man’s perspective that he is a woman should not be privileged over another man’s perspective that he is not.

I oppose laws demanding preferred pronoun use. Neither gender-affirming surgery for minors nor transgender females participating in women’s sports should be allowed.

For someone with such conservative views, it’s easier for me to go along with the so-called “bathroom bans” and call it a day.

But I find such laws so unbelievably strange.

Who’s really going to enforce Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s bathroom rule?

The issue rears its head again as the first openly transgender member of Congress, Democratic Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, takes Delaware’s seat. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, introduced a bathroom ban resolution specifically in response to McBride’s imminent arrival.

Since the congressional rules package won’t be adopted until the next Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson made a general statement regarding use of single-sex facilities throughout the U.S. Capitol complex: “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.”

That’s all well and good, but imagine how the enforcement of the rule plays out for McBride.

First, someone must catch McBride violating the rule. There are bathrooms all over the United States Capitol Complex. Of all the safety issues facing Capitol Hill, Capitol Hill Police stationed on sexual organ verification duty seems unlikely. Mace and Johnson are pretty busy and so are their colleagues and staff members. But for the sake of argument, let’s say McBride is caught on the way out of a female-designated bathroom.

“Ma’am, I’m afraid this bathroom is for women only,” says the checker. “I am a woman,” McBride responds. “What I mean to say is that it is reserved for ‘biological females’,” responds the checker. “It doesn’t say that on the door,” responds McBride. “Have you been checking everyone or just waiting for me?”

So we’re left with the option of either being on the lookout for “known transgender people” or checking everyone who passes through the bathroom door.

Avoid creating laws to enforce particular perspectives

Let’s dispense with the first case. Being transgender is not a crime. The idea of putting anyone on what amounts to a registry for bathroom admission is nuttier than a Payday on a peanut farm.

Neither will Congress execute uniform gender checks to use the restroom. I am stumped as to the screening process deciding which women must show their genitals to the attendant. Are we asking them to instantly evaluate relative Adam’s apple size? Maybe we screen all women above the average 5’4” height for American women? My wife is several inches above that threshold, and I can’t imagine any human brave enough to stand between her and the bathroom when nature calls. Everyone likes the randomized spot check by the TSA at the airport … said nobody ever.

All this congressional bathroom business is basically expressing views on gender identity.

The correct answer to speech that upsets us is more speech. We shouldn’t create laws to enforce our perspectives. Conservatives who can’t stand hate speech laws, university speech codes, and other government mandated speech shouldn’t do the same by creating laws and rules they have no intention of enforcing.

In defending the bathroom rules, Johnson also noted, “Women deserve women’s only spaces.” But what about the men who suddenly find transgender women in their bathrooms? How do we know that females aren’t sneaking into our restrooms for a peek? Are we supposed to just accept that every female-presenting individual in our bathrooms and locker rooms was assigned as male at birth? And don’t tell me that no woman would ever go into the men’s room, you sexist.

So I guess we’ll have to resort to an anatomy screen for the men’s bathroom too.

Have the gender debate, but don’t cancel each other

Put the argument in the context of another issue. Conservatives would lose their minds if Trump’s promise to enforce immigration law was limited to a resolution stating that people who are here without legal status cannot stay in America.

Why? Immigration law has the capacity to actually be consistently enforced. It hasn’t been for the last several administrations, but a majority of Americans want to see such laws upheld rather than ignored.

On the other hand, I can’t imagine anything close to a majority of Americans wanting to expose their genitals to enforce gender regulations for bathrooms and locker rooms. We have plenty of criminal laws if anyone of any gender commits crimes while in the loo.

America needs a robust, open debate about gender, and we appear to be doing just that. Neither side of that debate should have the capacity to shut down or cancel the other.

To McBride’s credit, the newly minted representative has dismissed the bathroom business as distracting noise. “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families,” McBride stated on X. “Like all members, I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them.”

We need fewer laws and regulations. We shouldn’t create new ones until we’re consistently enforcing the ones we already have. Conservatives, in particular, should understand that. Congress ought to focus more on immigration, inflation, and preventing World War III than who is sitting in the stall next to them.

USA TODAY Network Tennessee Columnist Cameron Smith is a Memphis-born, Brentwood-raised recovering political attorney who worked for conservative Republicans. He and his wife Justine are raising three boys in Nolensville, Tenn. Direct outrage or agreement to smith.david.cameron@gmail.com or @DCameronSmith on X, formerly known as Twitter. Agree or disagree? Send a letter to the editor to letters@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Transgender bathroom ban: House must awkwardly enforce it | Opinion