With a simple yet striking sign, U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, a Washington Democrat, is making a bold statement against Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s new bathroom policy, which bars transgender people from using Capitol facilities aligned with their gender identity.
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Outside Randall’s fifth-floor Washington, D.C., office in the Longworth House Office Building, a colorful sign reads, “All Gender Restroom.” Below, it cheerfully proclaims, “All are welcome to use our restroom regardless of gender identity or expression, political ideology, or shoe size.” The sign hangs beneath an embossed seal of the State of Washington, accompanied by the words “Welcome, Please Come In.”
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She announced the open-door policy on Instagram during her second week in Congress.
“There’s been a lot of chatter here on the hill about who’s allowed to use the bathrooms and where, which is weird, frankly, but I want to make sure that anyone who comes to visit the People’s House has access to the things that they need to be comfortable and to advocate for the issues that matter to them,” she said in the video, adding, “So if you need to go to the bathroom while you’re here in D.C., you can use ours.”
Randall, the first out queer woman to represent Washington state in Congress, shared her motivation for the sign during a tour of the space with The Advocate. “When I heard about these restrictive bathroom rules, I knew we needed to do something to push back, even in a small way,” she said. “Our office is a place where everyone should feel safe and respected. That’s what this sign represents.”
The welcoming gesture stands in stark contrast to Johnson’s policy, quietly enacted earlier this month, which mandates single-sex restroom use based on sex assigned at birth. LGBTQ+ advocates have criticized the rule as unnecessary and discriminatory, viewing it as a direct attack on Delaware U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride, a Democrat and the first out transgender member of Congress, whose office is two floors below Randall’s, where she also has a small private restroom.
Randall’s decision to open her office restroom to all is more than a practical solution—it’s a symbolic act of defiance in a Congress where LGBTQ+ rights are under increasing attack. Visitors to her office are greeted by the colorful sign and her small dog, Bad Bunny, who has become a cheerful and a bit temperamental mascot for the inclusive space.
Randall said the idea for the open-bathroom policy came during new member orientation when she first learned of Johnson’s plans. “Making it harder for people to use the bathroom doesn’t help anyone,” she told The Advocate. “We have so much important work to do—on cost-of-living issues, health care, education—but instead, we’re seeing attacks on marginalized communities being used as political distractions.”
While Randall has found in the few weeks since joining the House of Representatives that person-to-person interactions with colleagues across the aisle are respectful, she is troubled by the performative nature of many debates.
“In Olympia, we worked together to find common ground and amend bills,” she said of her time in Washington state’s legislature. “Here, it feels like a lot of questions are being asked just to get a viral clip. It’s a different world.”
tk caption: Emily Randall congressional bathroom open to all gendersChristopher Wiggins for The Advocate
The lawmaker also reflected on President Donald Trump’s recent wave of anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders, which follow the ultra-conservative Project 2025 playbook. The project, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, a far-right think, outlines a roadmap to dismantle protections for marginalized communities and reshape government policy.
“I’ve been having flashbacks to how I felt after the 2016 election,” Randall said. “That’s what got me into politics in the first place—knowing they were coming for the communities I’ve been fighting for. We saw it then, and we’re seeing it move so much more quickly. Now they’re using the Project 2025 template to act swiftly and to use our neighbors as tools to distract from the work of giving billionaires tax cuts and making life harder for regular people.”