The US House of Representatives has struck down a bill to build the new Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC. What had previously been a very popular bill was ultimately rejected (with a vote of 216 to 204) after last-minute changes to its language in March saw it reach a partisan deadlock on Thursday (21 May).
The changes included directing the museum to only include “biological women”, banning “diversity” and giving president Donald Trump permission to override its location on the National Mall. Democrats blame Republicans for tanking the bill by sneaking in these edits, while Republicans point the finger at Democrats for caring too much about trans people.
Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico, the chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC), said Republicans had “ruined it with your trans obsession and your culture wars”, according to Lisa Mascaro of the Associated Press.
In a joint statement, the members of the DWC said: “A museum about women, fought for and supported by women, should not be controlled by one man. Republicans traded the representation of women for Trump’s gain and ego. It’s as embarrassing as it is disappointing.”
It remains unclear why a bill whose main purpose is to locate the museum on the Mall would have a carveout for Trump if he chose to move it elsewhere.
Last month, more than 140 Democrats had sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, requesting that the original language of the bill be restored—to no avail. “While the author’s intent is clearly to target transgender women and girls,” they wrote, “the provision invites arbitrary enforcement and could be used to challenge the inclusion of any woman or girl a politician deems not ‘feminine’ enough.”
At a press briefing the day before the vote, Johnson said he saw this as “the party that purports to support women demanding that the museum include biological men. Democrats may be OK ceding control of their party for the most radical far-left people in the country, but Republicans are not going to be any party to that.”
Meanwhile the bill’s chief sponsor, Republican representative Nicole Malliotakis of New York, said: “Perhaps the party that is opposing a women’s history museum on the National Mall because they want to have transgender exhibits—maybe they are the ones who are trans obsessed.”
While the vote was largely split along party lines, several Republicans (all of them men) joined the Democrats in defeating the bill. Some of them saw no reason for a women’s history museum in the first place. “We say we need to unite this country, but then we isolate every group,” said Tim Burchett of Tennessee.
This latest vote puts into jeopardy the very existence of the museum, which was finally authorised and approved by congress and signed by Trump during his first term in 2020—following two decades of efforts. This latest development could also be a troubling harbinger for the future of the National Museum of the American Latino, which was approved at the same time six years ago. While neither museum has a permanent physical space, both have extensive programming online and as temporary pop-up exhibitions.