While on the House floor, South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace denounced trans people as she discussed her proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which would require access to single-sex spaces on military installations to be based on sex assigned at birth.
Her colleague, Democrat Sara Jacobs, a trans ally from California, stepped in to defend trans people’s access to single-sex spaces and pointed out that cisgender people receive gender-affirming care also, the outspoken anti-transgender Mace could be heard screaming.
“Allowing delusional men to use women’s restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms is an affront to women, and it’s reckless,” she says. She claims Democrats are defending “pedophiles and men who want to go into women’s spaces and rape them, assault them, and expose themselves.”
The truth is, transgender people are more likely to be harassed or attacked in these spaces than to commit harassment or violence. Cisgender women are often harassed if thought to be trans.
Jacobs added her opposition to Mace’s amendment. “Trans people, including trans service members, deserve basic human dignity and common decency in safely using the restroom,” she says. “Bathroom bans do not protect women,” she adds, citing a study from the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law that found, “There is zero evidence that allowing trans people to use the correct bathroom increases the risk to others. It’s actually the opposite.” She points out an incident in which a cisgender girl was followed into a restroom by a restaurant server who demanded that the girl prove that she was actually a woman.
Jacobs then went on to discuss the benefits of gender-affirming care for all: “I think it’s very interesting that my colleague from South Carolina is so obsessed with the issue of trans people, using horrible slurs to talk about them when many people in this body have received gender-affirming care,” she said. “Filler is gender-affirming care. Boob jobs are gender-affirming care. Lots of my colleagues have received gender-affirming care. And let me be clear, I think everyone should have access to the gender-affirming care that they need. And I think we should respect everybody in this country.”
Mace responded, “Ridiculous. You are absolutely ridiculous.” Mace also “could be heard yelling at Jacobs for making comments about ‘my body,’” The New Republic reports.
“I didn’t actually say anything about Nancy Mace,” Jacobs told the publication. “I said many of my colleagues have had this kind of care. So I think it’s very telling that she thought that I was picking on her.”
Jacobs later responded to a Mace post on X that said, “There is no such thing as a tr*ns child,” with Jacobs replying: “I feel sad for you. Stop lashing out against trans kids and pretending it’s to ‘protect women.’ Hope you get the help you need.”
