When it comes to monuments that divide Americans into groups, one might expect modern-day leftists would be all in favor.
But for Democrats, particularly women in the party, a small common-sense detail included in proposed legislation for the Smithsonian’s American Women’s History Museum wasn’t inclusive enough.
To be clear, Republicans weren’t trying to exclude women at all. But, as the Daily Caller reported, Democrats were just upset that men wouldn’t be allowed to steamroll this museum like they’ve been permitted to dominate women’s sports:
“The Museum may not identify, present, describe, or otherwise depict any biological male as female,” the latest version of the bill states.
ADVERTISEMENTThe House of Representatives voted 216 to 204 to reject the amended legislation Thursday. Minority Whip Katherine Clark may have played a hand in gathering opposition to the bill. Bloomberg Government’s Rachel Schilke noted Thursday that Clark was talking to the bill’s sponsor, Republican New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, and Majority House Leader Steve Scalise. Clark says she is the “mother of a transgender daughter,” and has previously expressed her “solidarity” with transgender-identified Americans.
Malliotakis introduced the bill February 2025. The Committee on House Administration passed Malliotakis’ legislation in March.
“[D]espite having more than 230 bipartisan cosponsors and the support of President Trump, this legislation passed out of Committee (7-4) along party lines, with the Democrats opposing it, simply because language was added via amendment by [Republican Illinois] Rep. Mary Miller to ensure the museum exhibits only biological women,” reads a March press release from Malliotakis.
Although left-leaning outlets like The Atlantic framed the failed vote as a testament to the Trump administration’s supposed “culture wars,” a flood of social media posts unequivocally sided with the GOP amendment seeking to limit the American Women’s Museum tributes to, well, American women:
If they ever have an exhibit inside the Smithsonian highlighting "Gender Dysphoria" then Transgenderism should be identified as a psychological and social contagion of our time. Like the Natzis, only remembered as to never be repeated…
— ComeGetMeLoser (@Alectraluv) May 23, 2026
Correction
What started as a widely backed proposal to put a new Smithsonian American Women's History Museum on the National Mall devolved into a partisan fight Thursday after Republicans revised the legislation to ensure no men are included in the exhibits.
— Paddy (@Paddy234537735) May 23, 2026
And more than a few questioned the wisdom of creating such an inherently divisive museum in the first place:
That should not have devolved. Anyone advocating for allowing transgender women in the museum needs to be replaced.
I question why we need a separate museum at all. Wouldn’t one museum with all history be sufficient.
Deciding it into groups just promotes division.
— john smith (@totlxs) May 23, 2026
The Hill also reported only the partisan clash:
More than 140 Democrats sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) last month calling on him to restore the original bipartisan bill.
ADVERTISEMENT“While the author’s intent is clearly to target transgender women and girls, the provision invites arbitrary enforcement and could be used to challenge the inclusion of any woman or girl a politician deems not ‘feminine’ enough. This is just another example of Republicans needlessly adding an anti-transgender provision to an unrelated bill that would impact not just transgender women and girls but all women and girls,” they wrote.
Johnson, however, slammed Democrats in a Wednesday press briefing, arguing that “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.”
Here’s one GOP legislator making his case for the museum:


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