Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) repeatedly shouted a slur during a House committee hearing, specifically because a Democratic colleague was criticizing her for using a slur.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, was speaking about her use of language during a hearing about “Rightsizing government.”
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Mace spoke before him and she went through a list of programs that she considered wasteful spending, focusing on USAID and some of the grants it gave to advance LGBTQ+ representation abroad. USAID is the government agency that handles humanitarian foreign aid and has become the target of the Trump administration, which is trying to end beneficial aid to other countries without going through Congress.
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Mace said that USAID is “rotten to its core” and is advancing “radical political and social agendas abroad.” She accused the agency of marginalizing “real bona fide biological women” with “extreme radical gender ideology.”
She brought up a program in Guatemala to support transgender people and asked the witnesses, “Does this advance the interests of American citizens, paying for tr***ies in Guatemala to the tune of $2 million?”
Connolly then brought up a parliamentary inquiry to ask about Mace’s use of that slur.
“The gentlelady has used a phrase that is considered a slur in the LGBTQ community and the transgender community,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA). He asked to finish “without interruption,” but Mace interrupted him.
“Tr***y! Tr***y! Tr***y!” she barked at him. “I don’t really care! You want penises in women’s bathrooms and I’m not gonna have it!”
“To me, a slur is a slur,” Connolly responded after the chair, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), asked Mace to let Connolly finish. “Here in the committee, a level of decorum requires us to try, consciously, to avoid slurs.”
“We can have debate and policy discussion without offending human beings who are our fellow citizens.”
Mace responded that she’s not going to let a “man” tell her that she should respect “men who have mental health issues dressing as women.”
Comer then said that he’s “not up to date on my politically correct LGBTQ terminology, we’ll look into that and get back with you on that.”
“I don’t know what’s offensive and what’s not,” he claimed.
CONNOLLY: The gentlelady has used a phrase that is considered a slur in the LGBTQ community NANCY MACE: Tranny tranny tranny, I don't really care, you want penises in women's bathrooms
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 5, 2025 at 5:13 PM
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Mace has been calling trans people that slur for months now, ever since she introduced a resolution to ban trans women from using the facilities at the Capitol last year following the election of Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), the first transgender person elected to Congress.
Mace has been using that slur on social media repeatedly and getting called out for it, which could explain why she reacted so quickly to Connolly at today’s hearing.
Mace has been using transphobia to build her political career since before she was elected to Congress. In her first campaign for Congress, she made up a law that she claimed required “transgender equality in the military,” said that her Democratic opponent was responsible for it, and said that it would result in a Marine Corps base in her district getting shut down. It was all a lie – there was no such law and the Marine base is still in operation today – but it helped her secure her seat in Congress.
In her second run for Congress, she accused her opponent of providing “SEX CHANGE SURGERY. PUBERTY BLOCKERS. GENDER CHANGING HORMONES. FOR CHILDREN?” in an ad, even though her opponent was a doctor who worked at a hospital that didn’t provide gender-affirming care for trans people at all. Her opponent was forced to resign from her job.
Mace has a poor record on LGBTQ+ rights in Congress, getting scores of 15 and 14 out of 100 on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard, and she even voted against the Equality Act, which would ban discrimination against LGBTQ+ people at the federal level, and against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act because it would give some protections to transgender inmates.
In her effort to stop McBride from using the women’s restrooms at the Capitol, Mace has referred to McBride as “it” and as a “man.” She has also started selling anti-trans t-shirts and said that it’s “offensive” that McBride thinks she’s “equal” to other congresswomen.
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