Rep. Mace says she won’t stop effort to bar transgender women from ‘female spaces’

Rep. Nancy Mace is not backing down on her opposition to transgender women in women’s restrooms, and is ready to take her case nationwide.

The issue comes as Capitol Hill will get its first openly transgender member of Congress, Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, Delaware Democrat. With first-term lawmakers on the Hill ahead of Thanksgiving break, the issue came up in a GOP caucus meeting.

“I just don’t want your d—- in my face,” Ms. Mace, South Carolina Republican, told The Washington Times. “I don’t want to be forced to undress in front of a man in my locker room. It’s just not a thing. And I think for me, it was just in my face, like we’ve got someone coming in who was going to use our female spaces.”

Ms. Mace, who has been vocal about being a survivor of rape and domestic violence, has also been an advocate of keeping transgender athletes out of girls’ and women’s sports. 

In an interview with The Times’ “Threat Status Weekly Podcast,” she said her experiences make her more “aware” of women being abused.

“I’m a rape survivor,” she said. “I have PTSD from a deeply traumatic event I had about a year ago. I’ve lost 30 pounds. I am more sensitive and aware of how women are abused in private spaces than I ever have been in my 46 years on Earth, and it’s just a deeply passionate issue for me.”

She said “women of all stripes” have told her they agree with her stance.

“Changing your entire culture for one-half of 1% of your activist base isn’t what women want,” she said. “And it’s something that I clearly struck a chord, and didn’t realize I would be striking the chord with it.”

She introduced a resolution last week that would ban transgender women from using female bathrooms at the Capitol. Speaker Mike Johnson attempted to take control of the situation and announced that he would be banning transgender women from using women’s restrooms in the Capitol. 

Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said in a statement that “all single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex.”

He told reporters after his announcement that “we have single-sex facilities for a reason, and women deserve women’s only spaces.”

“We’re not anti-anyone. We’re pro-woman, and I think it’s an important policy for us to continue. It’s always been the, I guess, an unwritten policy, but now it’s in writing,” he said.

Ms. McBride, who came out as transgender in 2012, called Ms. Mace’s efforts a “distraction” from what really needs to be done. After Mr. Johnson’s announcement, she said she wasn’t “here to fight about bathrooms,” but that she would follow the rules.

That didn’t stop Ms. Mace — her X account has featured more 300 posts about this issue alone. She has fundraised off of her efforts as well, even selling T-shirts for $35 that say “come and take it” with a picture of a women’s bathroom sign. The back says “Mace for Congress.”

She filed another bill the same day Mr. Johnson made his decision, a proposal that would ban transgender people from bathrooms in federal buildings across the country.

“Oh, you thought threatening me would silence me? No. I just doubled down and filed a new bill to protect women and girls across the entire country on all federal property everywhere,” she wrote in an X post with a screenshot of the bill.

The bill’s text says its purpose is to stop “individuals from accessing or using single-sex facilities on federal property other than those corresponding to their biological sex, and for other purposes.”

Democrats have come out against the bills and Ms. Mace’s rhetoric.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, told reporters that “what Nancy Mace and what Speaker Johnson are doing are endangering all women and girls.”

“Because if you ask them, ’What is your plan on how to enforce this?’ they won’t come up with an answer,” she said. “And what it inevitably results in are women and girls who are primed for assault because they want, because people are going to want to check their private parts in suspecting who is trans and who is cis and who’s doing what.”

Rep. Becca Balint, Vermont Democrat, questioned Ms. Mace’s bill on X, asking, “Where is part that lowers grocery costs? Drug prices? Or builds housing?

“Oh, right—it’s just about cruelty and feeding your need for attention,” the post said.

The GOP attack on transgender issues isn’t new — it was a major focal point of President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign. Republicans used ads and talking points to attack Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris for pushing the issue on Americans.