U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is introducing a binding resolution to ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms in the House of Representatives, after Sarah McBride, a Democrat from Delaware became the first openly transgender American to be elected to Congress. If passed, Congresswoman Mace says, it would require the Sergeant at Arms to enforce it. Speaker Johnson appeared noncommittal but reports say he may support it as a rules change.
But just three years ago, a few months into her first term as a member of Congress, Mace co-sponsored the GOP alternative to the LGBTQ Equality Act.
“I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality,” Mace told the Washington Examiner‘s Brad Polumbo. “No one should be discriminated against.”
“I have friends and family that identify as LGBTQ,” she added. “Understanding how they feel and how they’ve been treated is important. Having been around gay, lesbian, and transgender people has informed my opinion over my lifetime.”
READ MORE: Trump’s Plan to Defy 14th Amendment: No Passports for Children of Undocumented Parents
“I feel like it’s my duty to speak up on these issues, and to sponsor legislation on these issues, because I want people on both sides of the aisle to know that there are Republicans that care,” Mace continued. “That we are compassionate. There are many of us that want equality for everybody.”
Congresswoman Mace ran on a platform that included highlighting that she was the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, a public senior military college.
She has often referred to that fact, as she did at the Republican National Convention in July.
NANCY MACE: “Twenty-five years ago, this high school dropout became the FIRST woman to graduate from the Citadel, the military college of South Carolina!”
“A college campus where we don’t BURN American flags, we SALUTE them!” pic.twitter.com/M14PhEiBzi
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 17, 2024
And she has used her graduation from what was once a male-only institution to attack transgender women.
Women deserve to keeping having firsts, winning trophies, breaking records, and glass ceilings.
As the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel, I will always be a voice for women.
We don’t just identify as women—we are women. pic.twitter.com/4hDM9q4wGx
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) October 30, 2024
Mace’s House resolution claims, “allowing biological males into single-sex facilities, such as restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms designed for women, jeopardizes the safety and dignity of Members, officers, and employees of the House who are female.”
Late Tuesday morning Mace targeted McBride, telling reporters when asked, “Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say in this. This is a biological man trying to force himself into women’s spaces and I’m not going tolerate it. You have the radical left that are trying to erase women and erase women’s rights. I’m the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, the military college of South Carolina. If some guy in a skirt came by and said, no, that’s my achievement, I’m gonna be there and standing in the way and saying, ‘hell, no.’ I’m not gonna allow men to erase women or women’s rights, and I’m gonna be standing up here.”
“This is about women, this is about girls, it is about our rights and being protected in our private spaces. I don’t wanna see a man in a women’s restroom. That’s not a thing, and it’s not going to be a thing up here. It’s not gonna be a thing anywhere across the country either,” she concluded, appearing to suggest she would try to make the ban national.
Mace has repeatedly posted content from Libs of TikTok, whose owner is profiled on the Southern Poverty Law Center‘s website as an anti-LGBTQ extremist.
READ MORE: Trump Defiant After Lawyer Says His Clients Told Ethics Committee Matt Gaetz Paid for Sex
Over the past 24 hours Mace has also flooded her official government and personal social media accounts on X with dozens of her attacks on transgender women, including these:
“Biological men do not belong in private women’s spaces. Period. Full stop. End of story.”
“Full TERF,” she wrote. (TERF is an acronym for “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist.”)
“Women’s bathrooms are for biological women. Not men in a mini skirt.”
“I don’t want people with penis’s [sic] showing them off in our locker room.”
“The radical Left is calling me a ‘threat.’ You’re damn right I am. I am a threat to anyone who wants to strip women and girls of their rights,” she also wrote. Mace previously had co-sponsored legislation stating that life begins at conception, which would effectively ban abortion. She also says she is “pro-life” and supports bans on abortion after an unspecified amount of time.
In one post, she advocated for a national ban on medical care for transgender minors.
And she made clear that her resolution—which does not ban transgender men from men’s restrooms—was drafted for one person, writing: “McBride, a biological male, does not get a say in women’s private spaces.”
Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride on Monday evening appeared to respond to Mace’s resolution, by taking the high road.
“Every day Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully, I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness,” she wrote.
But minutes later she added a more-direct response: “This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing. We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars. Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on.”
Critics are blasting Mace.
“Please note that Nancy Mace didn’t do this until there was a specific Representative elected by the voters, a colleague to whom she hopes to deny basic human dignity. An awful, cowardly thing to do, but her desire for attention is a bottomless pit that can never be filled,” charged Aaron Fritschner, Deputy Chief of Staff to U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA).
“Whatever your views on trans issues, Nancy Mace is doing what Nancy Mace does: trying to get attention. Every lawmaker—including Sarah McBride, the incoming trans rep—has a restroom in their office. This is a solution in search of a problem, because Mace is a performance artist,” wrote Billy Binion a reporter for the libertarian magazine Reason. “Nancy Mace has passed one bill—a law that changed the name of a post office in Hilton Head. This is the same person who showed up to the Capitol wearing a scarlet letter so she could show off for the cameras. She spends taxpayer money performing & trying to get attention.”
“For Nancy Mace,” remarked Christina Reynolds of Emily’s List, “the cruelty and exclusion is the point. I hope voters from her district will call her office and remind her that they expect her to work for them, not to attack their coworkers to score points with MAGA extremists.”
Meanwhile, Tuesday morning, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested he was unwilling to discuss Mace’s resolution, at least for now.
“I’m not going to address plans on that,” he said when asked if he wanted to add Mace’s resolution into the House rules package. “I’m not going to engage in this. We don’t look down upon anyone.”
Reporter: Do you plan on bringing Nancy Mace’s transgender bill and putting it into the rules package?
Johnson: I’m not going to engage in this. pic.twitter.com/YQIzQmgkBA
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 19, 2024
But Punchbowl News and NBC News’ Melanie Zanona reports Johnson may have made a commitment to Mace to ban transgender women from women’s restrooms on Capitol Hill:
“I’m told Speaker Mike Johnson has committed to Nancy Mace that he will not allow biological men in women’s bathrooms & locker rooms in the Capitol next year, by adding a provision in the House Rules package. Mace is still reserving the right to file it as privileged resolution or amend it if that doesn’t happen though.”
With the videos above or at this link.
READ MORE: ‘Isn’t Going to Bring Audience Back’: Morning Joe’s Mar-a-Lago Meet a Ratings Hail Mary?