Despite Marjorie Taylor Greene’s next-to-nothing policy work and Lauren Boebert’s onslaught of scandals, the MAGA maidens have found their way back to Capitol Hill. The name of the game seems to be nabbing attention to stay in power, and wannabe MAGA heroes from across the country are desperately trying to capture a fraction of the women’s spotlight.
Nancy Mace has been around just as long as the other two, but until recently, the 46-year-old has done her job with surprisingly little grandstanding. The North Carolina representative has apparently decided to drink deep the Kool-Aid, and has joined her colleague’s mission to discover how far the human head can be inserted into an attached rectum.
In a video shared on X, Mace smugly tapes the word “biological” over the women’s restroom sign — that’s it. It’s a simple yet effective protest, but the 10-second clip did little more than remind Americans that their representatives are quibbling over one percent of the population.
In Mace’s reality, it’s even less than that. Exactly one trans person is serving on Capitol Hill. Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride recently won her election in Delaware and has yet to step foot in the chamber. As an open and proud transwoman, we’re sure McBride is used to her very existence being controversial, but her GOP colleagues using her election for political points this early has got to be rough.
Heidi Sinsley, a junior delegate for the 2024 DNC, was quick to point out how weird the cringey video came across. “I don’t wake up every day wondering what genitals other people have,” she wrote on X. “Nancy Mace is that person. So weird.” Liberals across the site voiced their frustration. They called Mace a “performative ass,” and told her to “go do your job, loser.”
McBride is a portion of one of the world’s smallest demographics. Around .6% of the United States identifies as trans, and on Capital Hill, she represents around .2% of the workforce. Despite that simple fact, Mace introduced a bill on Nov. 18 restricting members, staff, and visitors from using single-sex facilities like bathrooms and locker rooms “other than those corresponding to their biological sex.”
President-elect Trump and his cronies have already promised to roll back protections for the LGBTQIA+ community by taking down Title IX – a regulation that protects students from gender identity discrimination. While the culture war around sex and gender ideologies is nothing new, those waging it are relatively well-established.
Multiple accounts felt Mace’s concern was manufactured for clout, “Why is this just now your issue?” they questioned. Others lambasted her for what they perceived as hypocrisy. She was the first female graduate of The Citadel’s Corps of Cadets program and wrote a book about her experience in an all-male academy. The military college opened its doors to women decades before, but other female students dropped out over alleged death threats.
Perhaps her record of reaching for the glass ceiling makes Mace view McBride as the enemy — but the fight for equality on the Hill is still underway. Women in the House didn’t even have access to a bathroom until 2011 — nearly 100 years after the first woman, Jeanette Rankin, was elected to serve in 1916. Before that, they had to leave the Chamber and find relief in the touristy Lindy Claiborne Statuary Hall.
McBride didn’t call out Mace directly, but she did post to X, writing, “Every day Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully, I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) said that Congress would address the problem “in deliberate fashion with member consensus” and that they would “accommodate the needs of every single person.”