Author: G. Samantha Rosenthal, Visiting Assistant Professor of American History, Washington and Lee University

A surprising buzzword in the U.S. Congress these days is “biological.” In a now viral video, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina was filmed taping a piece of paper with the word “biological” on it above a women’s restroom sign inside the Capitol building. This followed Mace’s introduction of two bills to limit the use of single-sex women’s facilities – first in the Capitol then on all federal properties – to members of the corresponding “biological sex.” Mace’s Capitol bill claims that the presence of “biological males” in “restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms designed for women jeopardizes the…