A former aide to anti-trans lawmaker Nancy Mace has ripped the South Carolina congresswoman over her bill that would ban trans women from women’s restrooms, calling it nothing more than “a ploy” to get on TV, a claim that Mace has faced before.
“If you think this bill is about protecting women and not simply a ploy to get on Fox News, you’ve been fooled,” Natalie Johnson, who served as Mace’s director of communications in 2021, posted on X in response to Mace’s bill which targets restrooms solely in the U.S. Capitol. Her bill was introduced two weeks after Sarah McBride (D-Del.) became the first openly trans person elected to Congress.
Mace’s legislation is a clear reversal of prior pro-LGBTQ comments she’s made while in office, though it falls in line with current rhetoric that has been credited in part with helping fuel President-elect Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.
“I strongly support LGBTQ rights. No one should be discriminated against,” Mace told the Washington Examiner shortly after taking office as a freshman lawmaker in 2021. “Having been around gay, lesbian, and transgender people has informed my opinion over my lifetime.”
Newsweek on Thursday said it counted 326 instances within the last 72 hours where Mace posted, reposted or responded to posts on social media about bathrooms. Her posts include her repeatedly and intentionally identifying transgender women, like McBride, as men.
“It’s offensive that a man in a skirt thinks that he’s my equal,” Mace said in an interview with Newsmax Wednesday.
A representative with Mace’s office did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on Johnson’s criticism or on why Mace’s support of the LGBTQ community has changed.
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Mace, who ran her own PR firm before seeking office, has previously been accused by former staffers of not being “a real legislator” and primarily “using her office to get on TV.” Earlier this year, she was also accused by staffers of wanting to “get punched in the face” by rioters during the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol so that she’d get media attention for it.
Transgender rights ended up playing a major role in the 2024 presidential election, with Republicans gaining ground by painting Democrats as being too far to the left on social issues like transgender rights. One particular pro-Trump ad that criticized Kamala Harris’ support of trans rights was deemed “the most impactful commercial of his campaign” and even suggested as having “won Donald Trump the election.”