Nancy Mace, Perennially Obsessed With Genitals, Intros Bill to Bully New Trans Colleague

Across the country, voters outraged by inflation (and apparently nothing else) elected Republican majorities to the House and Senate and sent Donald Trump to the White House. And now, Republicans are listening. JK! On Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.)—the Republican who previously demonstrated a keen obsession with Hunter Biden's genitalia—introduced a resolution to ban Congress members and their staffers from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.” It's an obvious attack on Sarah McBride of Delaware, who will soon serve as the first trans member of Congress.

Quick aside, I'm yet again floored by the insane lack of workplace safety and anti-harassment training for Congress members. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has had to put up one with a colleague calling her a "bitch" and another who shared an edited anime clip of himself killing her. Between that, the literal fight on the House floor in July 2023, and the fact that almost every member has to interact with Marjorie Taylor Greene or, prior to his shady resignation, Matt Gaetz, the U.S. government might be one of the most toxic workplaces in the U.S.

Anyway. Mace spent most of Monday misgendering McBride and maintaining that the incoming congresswoman “does not belong in women’s spaces, women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, period, full stop.” I can't really fathom any other workplace in the country where treating your co-workers this way wouldn't be grounds for termination. Mace, who just three years ago declared, “I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality. No one should be discriminated against," is now pathetically trying to frame her harassment of McBride as feminist activism. In a video message posted to Twitter on Tuesday, she declared herself a “feminist” and said she’d fight “like hell” to protect women and girls “across this country.” To answer your question, no, she hasn't said a word about our president-elect who's a legally recognized sexual abuser, or the slate of accused men he's bringing to the White House with him. Instead, Mace tweeted on Tuesday that it's "insane to expect women to make men comfortable in our own private spaces"—ironically, Mace is making a lot of women uncomfortable with her preoccupation with our genitals.

"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…

— Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) November 19, 2024

Early Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson—who spent the weekend at a UFC event alongside Trump and a slate of other men accused of harming women—reportedly affirmed on Tuesday that he'll back Mace's bigoted resolution.

McBride has been handling the situation with far more grace than anyone should. “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 on Twitter on Monday. She called Mace's resolution "a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing."

Mace's attack on McBride comes as top voices in the Democratic Party have been blaming their recent, crushing electoral losses on the party's supposed embrace of trans rights—even as, if anything, LGBTQ rights advocates point out the party leadership has largely hung them out to dry. As one trans journalist pointed out on Monday, Mace's targeted harassment of McBride shows "exactly why Democrats should not start conceding on things like trans people in sports." Democrats should never make concessions for trans people's humanity—certainly not now.