From compassion to using a slur. SC’s Mace shifted tone on transgender issues
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace since last year has made an effort to show her opposition to transgender issues.
Mace railed against U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Delaware, a transgender woman, saying McBride should not use the women’s restroom at the U.S. Capitol.
During hearings and at public appearances while talking about the transgender issues, Mace has proudly used a word commonly considered a slur of transgender people.
“T****y, t****y, t****y. You want penises in women’s bathrooms and I’m not going to have it,” Mace said to a Democratic member objecting to her use of the term.
At an event at the University of South Carolina in April, a student asked Mace to apologize for using the term because it is considered derogatory. Mace went on to repeat the word three times.
In December, she posted on X, “If “t******s” is considered a slur then “cis” should be toor, can we call ‘cis’ one too?”
She also used the slur at stops in Rock Hill and Greenville earlier this year.
“These are the people who are very confused,” Mace said referring to demonstrators outside her Rock Hill stop. “They’re all messed up.”
It was a ramp up in rhetoric toward the transgender community than earlier in her congressional career, when she co-sponsored a bill to address healthcare, mental health support and benefits access for LGBTQ+ veterans and a bill to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. She also talked about the importance of compassion when asked in an interview with a national outlet.
Mace is one of five Republicans seeking the GOP nomination for governor in the 2026 race to succeed Gov. Henry McMaster. In 2020, Mace was elected to represent the Lowcountry’s 1st Congressional District. At the time, it was the state’s only toss-up district, and during the 2021 redistricting process, state lawmakers redrew the lines to ensure the district was more reliably Republican.
Making sure children aren’t allowed to undergo gender transition, not allowing men in women sports or transgender women in women sports, and keeping transgender women from using women’s restrooms have been key Republican stances in recent years.
“The left turned equality into indoctrination. They’re not protecting rights, they’re pushing dangerous ideology on our kids and calling it compassion. Nancy Mace won’t play along. She’ll fight every attempt by the Left to rewrite biology, erase women and brainwash children. Parents are done being bullied,” said Piper Gifford, Mace’s campaign spokeswoman.
Mace’s campaign team says it’s not a shift in tone from the congresswoman.
“There’s no change in tone, there’s a change in reality,” Gifford said. “Nancy Mace is a mom, she’s a fighter, and she’s sick of watching the radical left bully parents and kids and out our daughters and granddaughters in harm’s way.”
Republicans now controlling the U.S. House, Senate and White House, have sought to restrict transgender rights.
The proposed National Defense Authorization Act, which Mace voted for, includes a requirement to report on diversity, equity and inclusion and transgender medical costs that took place under the Biden administration.
In 2024, Mace voted four times to prevent the the Department of Defense from covering the costs of gender transition surgeries and gender hormone treatments
Prior to Mace confirming she was considering a run for governor, her actions were more supportive of transgender rights.
When she was first elected to Congress in 2021 she co-sponsored the Fairness Act which would have prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in areas like employment, housing and public accommodations, while including exemptions for religious organizations. The bill did not move out of committee.
She also co-sponsored the Serving Our LGBTQ Veterans Act, which would have created a dedicated Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Veterans within the Department of Veterans Affairs to address healthcare, mental health support and benefits access for LGBTQ+ veterans.
“She always ran on Lowcountry first. People over politics. Now she’s putting politics over people,” said Phil Ford, the founder of the Ford and Ford Group where he advocates for LGBTQ+ rights. He also said he thanked Mace for her 2022 vote to codify gay marriage. “It’s a departure from who she used to be for political points.”
Mace, in a 2023 interview with CBS News, said compassion was part of her politics, pointing to issues such as gun violence and abortion. She said in the interview she was pro-transgender rights.
“Just don’t go to the extreme with our kids,” Mace said. “Sex change surgery, the hormone blockers that sterilize our children. We shouldn’t be doing that when a child is prepubescent or going through puberty let that child go through the natural process of life, let them make that permanent decision when they’re older.”
“If they want to take on a different pronoun, or a different gender identity, or grow their hair out, or wear a dress or wear pants or do those things as a minor those are all things most people would support. Be who you want to be,” Mace said in the interview. “Don’t make those permanent changes when they’re a child that’s just abusive.”
When Mace launched her campaign for governor, her position on pronouns was different.
“We are going to ban pronouns in the classroom. I don’t want to see any of their parties. I want kids coming home with A’s and B’s, not they and them,” Mace said during her campaign kickoff. “I want to protect teacher wages, and let me be very clear, no state dollars to any K through 12 school, college or university that teaches there are more than two genders.”
“We will not fund any schools that allow biological men and women’s bathrooms or locker rooms that allow men to compete in women’s sports, or schools that push gender ideology,” Mace added.
Her positions during the last year frustrate Ford.
“At the end of the day, the LGBTQ plus community is a minority community and a marginalized community and as a Citadel grad, and as someone who spent time learning their values and living their values of the citadel, to see Nancy Mace punch down at a community like this is alarming for somebody who wants to run an entire state,” Ford said.
Mace’s campaign said the congresswoman is drawing a distinction between adults being transgender versus children who identify as transgender.
“There’s a difference between an adult’s First Amendment right to dress however they want and grooming children or trying to erase women,” Gifford said. “Nancy Mace is standing her ground where it matters most, protecting girls, protecting parents and protecting truth.”
This story was originally published October 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "From compassion to using a slur. SC’s Mace shifted tone on transgender issues."
