The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum has been years in the making — and now, transphobia is threatening to derail the whole thing.
A bill to approve building the museum failed to pass on a 204-216 vote, after House Democrats voted in opposition. The Democratic Women’s Caucus pulled support after Republicans amended the legislation to require that the museum exclude transgender women.
That rule would exclude trans women like Lynn Conway, an American computer scientist who guided the microchip design revolution of the 1980s, and Rachel Levine, former assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services who helped coordinate the national COVID-19 pandemic response — not to mention the film directors behind “The Matrix” and Emmy-winning star Laverne Cox.
During an hour of debate on the House floor Thursday, Democrats cautioned that the amended version of the bill also gives Trump too much sway over the museum’s design —and leaves progress on the Museum of the American Latino up in the air. Their attempt to return to the original bipartisan version of the bill failed.
“This bill used to be a bipartisan success story,” Democratic Rep. Emily Randall of Washington state said on the House floor. “Republicans inserted culture war language limiting the museum to biological women. That language was not added to improve the museum, it was added to erase trans women from American history.”
The Democratic Women’s Caucus has been publicly pushing for Republicans to drop the amendment since March, when it was first proposed. Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, Hillary Scholten of Michigan and Emilia Sykes of Ohio — the chair and vice chairs of the caucus, respectively — said Republicans amended the bill to give President Donald Trump and his allies “unregulated power” over the content and location of the museum.
“A museum about women, fought for and supported by women, should not be controlled by one man. We strongly oppose this bill as amended. It completely flies in the face of the museum’s intention,” they said in a statement. “We urge our colleagues to join us in opposing this bill and demand that the bill be restored to the bipartisan version.”
The museum was created to reflect the diverse political viewpoints and experiences of women in the United States, including their cultures, histories, and values. Last month, Republicans added an exception: that those experiences cannot “depict any biological male as female.”
Although this amended bill singles out transgender women, Democrats worry it would also encourage the exclusion of any woman or girl deemed not “feminine” enough by politicians, including intersex women. Many women are born with biological sex characteristics like chromosomes, hormones or reproductive anatomy that don’t fit society’s definition of female.
The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum was first authorized by Congress in 2020, alongside a Museum of the American Latino. That second museum has stalled, as Democrats accuse Republicans of delaying progress by excluding it from the current bill on the table. Congress now holds the key to approve construction for both museums on the National Mall in Washington. The current version, amended by Republicans, also grants Trump the ability to designate an alternate location for the women’s museum.
Despite the roadblocks to its physical construction, digital exhibitions from the women’s history museum are available online now, as are classroom resources for teachers and a state-by-state guide of women’s history in America.