A House hearing descended into chaos when MAGA firebrand Nancy Mace, a lawmaker from South Carolina, repeatedly shouted an anti-trans slur.
During a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Mace listed off a slew of government expenditures, when Ranking Member Gerald Connolly took issue with her use of the word “t*****.’
“The gentlelady has used a phrase that is considered a slur in the LGBTQ community and the transgender community,” he said, before being interrupted by the GOP Representative.
“T*****, t*****, t*****. I don’t really care,” Mace exclaimed as Connolly asked her to let him finish.
“You want penises in women’s bathrooms, and I’m not going to have it,” she continued.
The slur is one of the “most extreme slurs for a trans person, similar to other extreme slurs for other historically marginalized groups,” according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
After order was restored, Connolly, a Democrat, condemned her outburst. “Here in the committee, a level of the quorum requires us to try consciously to avoid slurs,” he said. “We can have debate and policy discussion without offending human beings who are fellow citizens.”
Again, Mace interrupted.
“Mr. Chairman, I’m not gonna be counseled by a man over men and women’s spaces, or men who have mental health issues dressing as women,” she said. “I’m not being counseled by some guy over this.”
But Committee Chair James Comer, a fellow Republican, dismissed the remark and said he was not “up to date” on his “LGBTQ terminology.”
Mace’s communications director Gabrielle Lipsky told The Independent, “the Left has going for them is political correctness because they are so wrong on everything.”
“So far, the President Donald Trump White House has exposed their failures and abuses of our federal government, and we are determined to keep going,” she continued. “Maybe the Left should start worrying about how their failures impact the American people, the national deficit, and Western values instead of obsessing over ‘mean words.’”
Connolly isn’t the only one concerned by Mace’s outburst.
Briahna Joy Gray, an attorney and former press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, condemned the remarks on X.
“Nancy Mace once seemed like one of the more reasonable Republicans given her stance on reproductive issues,” Gray wrote. “Now she’s screeching “t*****” repeatedly while claiming it’s about protecting cis women.”
“To be clear: That slur is about denigrating someone’s identity, not their behavior/political beliefs,” she added.
This is far from the first time Mace has used the anti-trans slur. The lawmaker used the slur in two separate videos posted to X in early December, and later complained when the social media site flagged one of them for potentially violating its rules of conduct.
She has also repeatedly leveled anti-trans rhetoric against her colleague, Representative Sarah McBride, who is first trans member of Congress. Mace, in addition to repeatedly misgendering Bride and others, even introduced a bill to bar transgender women from using women’s bathrooms in the Capitol.
Mace’s position on the LGBTQ+ community has radically shifted in recent years.
In 2021, she was one of the only Republicans to sponsor the Serving Our LGBTQ Veterans Act, which proposed establishing a Center for LGBTQ Veterans within the Department of Veterans Affairs.
That same year, she even called for “transgender equality” while asserting herself as a pro-LGBTQ+ rights lawmaker.
“I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality,” Mace told the Washington Examiner. “No one should be discriminated against.”
“It isn’t a black-and-white issue,” Mace added. “I do believe that religious liberty, the First Amendment, gay rights, and transgender equality can all coexist. I’m also a constitutionalist, and we have to ensure anti-discrimination laws don’t violate First Amendment rights or religious freedom.”
