Donald Trump closed out his 2024 campaign with a promise to fight against transgender insanity. Now, that fight is playing out within the halls of Congress.On Tuesday, Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina announced plans to ban trans women from using womens restrooms in the Capitol. Even if her move werent obviously a direct response to Delaware Democrat Sarah McBride winning her race and becoming the first openly trans person elected to Congress, Mace helpfully clarified as much on X. The following morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson formally announced that trans people will indeed be banned from using restrooms aligned with their gender identity on the House side of the Capitol. If this measure proceeds unchallenged by Democrats, it will have devastating consequences for trans people in workplaces across America.Transgender rights played a significant role in the 2024 election. According to data released by Ad Impact, Republicans spent nearly $215 million on network TV ads depicting trans people as a major threat. What were their main points of contention? If taken at face value, its that trans women and girls should not be allowed to compete in sports for women and girls, and that minors who identify as trans should not receive any support from educators, let alone be allowed to seek gender-affirming care. (Meanwhile, whenever Vice President Kamala Harris was asked about these topics in interviews, she often treated them like gotcha questions and side-stepped accordingly.)Of course, as many trans activists have long pointed out, battles over sports and minors are pretextual skirmishes for a coming war on trans peoples right to peacefully exist in public altogether. Its a war in which theyve already incurred losses.Back in January, for instance, Utah became the 11th state to implement a bill requiring people to use bathrooms in schools and government-owned buildings that match the sex they were assigned at birth. While framed as a protection against the supposed scourge of bathroom violencea paper tiger that demonstrably does not existthe true intent of the bill appears to be further stigmatization for trans people and making sure they feel unwelcome.Aiding in that goal is close Trump ally Elon Musk. After acquiring Twitter in 2022, Musk degraded its content moderation policies, turning the platform into a toxic environment where anti-trans views are not only welcome but normalized, and so highly visible that users might extrapolate that this is how everyone talks, thinks, and feels.Reading news about the unfolding bathroom ban in Congress from within the platform might only further compound that idea.Sore winnersTrumps supporters are understandably energized after his electoral victory. They seem unfazed by his selection of eminently unqualified cabinet picks, such as Fox News host Pete Hegseth and scandal-prone Rep. Matt Gaetz, even though such picks suggest a leader convinced he can get away with anything.But one of the downstream effects of Trumps win is that those rank-and-file supportersteachers, salespeople, and architects around the countrymay soon start testing the limits of what they can get away with as well.If the MAGA base receives a message that its fine to treat trans coworkers this way, that Trumps ideological opponents were so thoroughly pulverized by this election that theyre now incapable of pushing back, then the base will internalize that message to the detriment of trans people everywhere. Speaker Johnson may not be able to snap his fingers and institute a bathroom banat least, the D.C. Human Rights Act suggests he cantbut theres a message in the very fact that hes trying.Workplace leaders are watchingBeyond any implications about further actions at the federal level, some receptive CEOs and office managers are bound to note the effort currently unfolding in Congress and attempt to tighten restrictions within their own smaller-stakes purview. If that happens, trans employees will be forced to either go along with undignified working conditions or fight protracted legal battles theyre not guaranteed to win.Americans, of course, are not required by law to be nice to trans people. But they are indeed requiredfor now, at leastto not treat them like second-class citizens, which is precisely the effect that these bathroom bills achieve.For her part, McBride has been measured and graceful in her response to Maces stunt and to Johnsons announcement. Every day, Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully, she wrote on X Monday night. I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness.Her hoped-for result seems unlikely. But in lieu of kindness, perhaps members of Congress will muster some courage.https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1859047222895407475Minority House Leader Hakeem Jeffries showed a little backbone on Tuesday, chiding Republicans for bullying a fellow member of Congress. Pushing back on this bathroom ban in a meaningful way, however, will require a robust, sustained counterattackone that some Dems may be convinced they dont have the bandwidth to carry out. A second Trump term means a familiar return to constant chaos, making it difficult to assess which issues are worth responding to and which ones are just distractions.The battle for trans rights is no mere distraction, though. Its a fight that matters.Democrats have engaged in a lot of finger-pointing since the election about just who to throw under the bus in order to win over more voters in the next election. Trans people have emerged among the list of potential future roadkill.The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left, Representative Tom Suozzi, a New York Democrat, told the New York Times the day after the election. I dont want to discriminate against anybody, but I dont think biological boys should be playing in girls sports . . . Democrats arent saying that, and they should be.But backtracking on previously held convictions wont make Democrats more broadly appealing; it will only make them appear as if all their convictions are equally flexible. At that point, the difference between the two sides becomes harder to parse.Elections help determine the character of the country, but they dont automatically define it. The Dems may have lost the election, but if theyre willing to alienate the queer community and its allies by rolling over on this issue, then they will lose something even more vitally important. President Joe Biden famously framed his fight against Trumpism as a battle for the soul of a nation. Whether a nation can lose its soul with a single election is up for debate, but a political party can certainly lose one by abandoning its persecuted constituents instead of fighting for them when it matters most.