Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), the rabidly transphobic congresswoman who recently announced her campaign to become her state’s next governor, used a transphobic slur at a recent town hall event in Rock Hill on Monday, referring to one of the dozens of protestors outside of the venue as a “tr**ny.”

“These are the people who are very confused,” Mace said during her event at a local brewery, as protestors waved large rainbow flags and chanted outside, The Herald reported. “They’re all messed up.”

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The protestors largely came to speak out against Mace’s anti-LGBTQ+ stances, several told the aforementioned publication. Mace said of the demonstrators, “They’re hiding behind a mask because they’re too scared to show their face. They’re not man enough to come into the room and ask the tough questions.”

During her speech, almost all of Mace’s policies on education focused on LGBTQ+ issues. She threatened to end federal funding for any school that “thinks men can get pregnant,” even though some transgender men can get pregnant, despite Mace’s beliefs. She also promised to “ban pronouns” and “child porn in libraries,” although pronouns are an everyday part of human communication. While there’s no evidence of child pornography being available in any public school library, conservatives have often accused books by LGBTQ+ authors of being child porn.

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“I’m going to hold the line against DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusivity efforts],” she said. “I’m going to hold the line against this woke agenda that’s being pushed.” She also pledged to support so-called “school choice” programs that divert public taxpayer dollars into private schools that can refuse students for any reason. The defunding of public schools is a longtime goal of anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans and Christian nationalists.

After an attendee got into “a heated exchange” with Mace over her stances on Planned Parenthood funding, health care, and birth control, the attendee walked out of the event. Mace then commented, “Say hi to the tr**ny for me,” not referring to anyone specifically. When asked about the slur, Mace told reporters, “[It’s] not offensive. What’s offensive is a woman in a man’s space,” WCNC reported.

Mace, who was the first female graduate of the classically all-male Citadel’s military college, added, “Gays need to divorce the tr**nies.” She also said trans women should not be in women’s spaces, including dorms and bathrooms.

Mace’s use of transphobic slurs isn’t surprising

The growing trend of anti-trans rhetoric and policies from Republicans nationwide is leading to more overt public displays of transphobia, and Mace has long been at the forefront of this trend.

She has previously referred to herself as a “Full TERF” (an acronym for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist”) and has a long and proud history of demonizing trans people. She has, in many ways, become the public face of the Republicans’ crusade to eradicate trans people from all aspects of civic life.

When Mace first ran for a congressional seat in 2020, she ran an ad falsely accusing her opponent of passing a law “requiring transgender equality in the military.” During Mace’s 2022 reelection campaign, she falsely accused her opponent, a pediatrician, of conducting “sex changes” on “children as young as four years old.”

She also lobbed transphobic slurs at a student, shouted these slurs during a speech and a House committee meeting, publicly bullied a trans influencer, was booed when discussing a trans activist’s genitals at a public talk, targeted two universities in her state for offering more than two gender options on certain student forms, referred to Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) as “it” and “a man” in a TV news appearance, and called trans people “mentally ill” (even though trans identity isn’t considered a mental illness by any major medical or psychological association).

Mace also persuaded House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to introduce a rule banning all trans people from using Capitol restrooms that match their gender identity. She has started selling anti-trans t-shirts and said that it’s “offensive” that McBride thinks she’s “equal” to other congresswomen. She also voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act because it would give some protections to trans inmates.

Mace voted against the Equality Act, which would ban discrimination against LGBTQ+ people at the federal level, and has a poor record on LGBTQ+ rights in Congress, getting scores of 15 and 14 out of 100 on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard. Mace has also written hundreds of posts on social media attacking trans people, some of which include slurs. Numerous members of Congress have criticized Mace’s “vile” and “disgusting” rhetoric.

Natalie Johnson, Mace’s former communications director, pointed out that, in March 2021, Mace posted a comment on X (then-Twitter) declaring, “I strongly support LGBTQ rights. No one should be discriminated against. Religious liberty, gay rights, and transgender equality can all coexist.”

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