'Gentlelady' Nancy Mace shouts T word repeatedly in House hearing

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, who is known for her political stunts, is making it clear that she has no interest in backing down from anti-trans rhetoric. After repeatedly shouting an anti-trans slur during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Mace escalated her attacks further—pinning a clip of herself saying the slur to the top of her official X account with the caption, “Rumor has it, saying it three times summons a Leftist meltdown.”

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At the hearing, Mace targeted funding for transgender-inclusive programs abroad, mischaracterizing a USAID grant to trans-led organizations in Guatemala and weaponizing anti-trans rhetoric to make her point.

“Does this advance the interests of American citizens, paying for tr*****s in Guatemala to the tune of $2 million?” she asked.

Democratic Virginia U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, the committee’s ranking member, swiftly condemned her language.

“The gentlelady has used a phrase that is considered a slur in the LGBTQ community and the transgender community,” Connolly said.

Rather than reconsider her words, Mace leaned in.

“Tr***y, tr***y, tr***y!” she shouted. “I don’t really care! You want penises in women’s bathrooms, and I’m not going to have it!”

As Connolly attempted to restore order, Mace cut him off again, saying, “I’m not gonna be counseled by a man over men in women’s spaces or men who have mental health issues dressing as women.”

Rather than condemn her language, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, dismissed concerns, claiming he was unfamiliar with what counts as offensive.

“I will be honest with the ranking member,” Comer said. “I’m not up to date on my politically correct LGBTQ terminology.”

GLAAD issued a strong statement calling out her repeated use of an anti-trans slur as a calculated attack on the transgender community.

“A number of high-profile people have repeated this hurtful slur, not realizing it was a slur with decades of violence and hate attached to it, and they’ve taken the time to do the right thing after,” a GLAAD spokesperson told The Advocate. “The best course of action is to educate yourself, take the time to learn about transgender people, apologize genuinely, and don’t do it again.”

However, the organization noted that Mace’s repeated use of the term was no accident.

“In an ideal world, an elected official such as Rep. Mace would take this opportunity to educate herself and her followers about the dangerous impacts of using anti-trans slurs, and genuinely apologize,” the spokesperson added. “But it’s clear that this wasn’t just a simple uneducated misstep. Rep. Mace’s repeated use of an anti-trans slur today is part of her hyper-calculated, pathetic scramble to viciously attack her transgender and LGBTQ constituents. She was elected to do a job – advocate for the needs of her constituents. But instead, she’s disgustingly using her stint in Congress to push hate and vitriol, as if she’s auditioning for some fictitious reality show about the worst of America.”

The stunt is just the latest in a series of inflammatory actions by Mace, who has positioned herself as a leading voice in the GOP’s war against transgender rights. The South Carolina Republican has introduced anti-trans bathroom bans, misgendered Delaware Democratic Congresswoman Sarah McBride, the first out trans member of Congress, and sought to use congressional hearings as platforms to push anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.

Mace’s latest outburst is just part of a larger pattern of targeting transgender Americans. In November, she introduced two anti-trans bathroom bills—one specifically aimed at McBride and another that would ban transgender people from using restrooms in federal buildings across the country.

Mace’s Capitol bathroom ban didn’t make it into the 119th’s Congress rules package, but Speaker Mike Johnson implemented it at his discretion anyway. The ban bars McBride and other transgender women from using women’s facilities in the House of Representatives.

McBride herself has dismissed Mace’s stunts as a distraction.

Mace’s rhetoric represents a stark departure from her past positioning as a moderate Republican on LGBTQ+ issues. In 2021, she co-sponsored the “Serving Our LGBTQ Veterans Act,” which sought to create a center for LGBTQ+ veterans within the Department of Veterans Affairs. That same year, she claimed to support “transgender equality” and even called herself a pro-LGBTQ+ Republican.

“I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality,” Mace told the Washington Examiner in 2021. “No one should be discriminated against.”

But as the Republican Party has increasingly embraced anti-LGBTQ+ extremism, Mace has followed suit, using inflammatory rhetoric to raise her national profile.

Celebrities like Lance Bass, Gabourey Sidibe, and Carlos Santana have all previously used the term publicly but later expressed remorse and sought to educate themselves and others on why it is harmful.

Santana, for instance, faced backlash after making anti-trans comments at a concert in 2023. He later apologized, writing, “I am sorry for my insensitive comments. They don’t reflect that I want to honor and respect all persons’ ideals and beliefs.” Sidibe and Bass similarly apologized after using the slur, acknowledging its dehumanizing impact.

Mace, however, is leaning into the hate, further escalating a political environment already rife with threats against LGBTQ+ people. GLAAD’s Alert Desk reported that there were an average of 2.5 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents per day in 2024, fueled in part by dehumanizing rhetoric like Mace’s.

“The apology should be just as loud, if not louder than, the use of the slur,” the GLAAD spokesperson added.