Mace faces backlash over effort to ban new transgender member of Congress from women's bathrooms

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., clashed with her critics online Tuesday as she faces backlash for her resolution to bar men who identify as female from the women's restrooms on Capitol Hill.

Mace filed the resolution on Monday, which Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Elkind first reported will prohibit "Members, officers, and employees of the House from using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex." 

The resolution comes just as the first openly transgender lawmaker, Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., is set to join Congress in January. McBride is a biological male who identifies and presents as a woman. 

"This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing," McBride said in a statement. "We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars." 

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"Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on," added McBride.

When online critics said Mace's resolution was "clearly directed" at McBride, the South Carolina congresswoman confirmed that was her intention.

"Yes and then some. Biological men do not have any rights to women’s private spaces. It’s perverted to think otherwise," Mace posted on X in response to another user. 

"Also Sarah McBride doesn't get a say here. I will always protect woman and girls. Period. Full stop. End of story." 

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Her uncompromising position provoked McBride's defenders to call Mace a bigot and a bully. 

Left-wing journalist Aaron Rupar shared a screenshot of Mace's response and wrote, "Note how ‘concerns about fairness in sports’ has already transformed into unvarnished transphobic bigotry." 

Mace responded, "Protecting women and girls isn’t bigotry, it’s common sense. I will stand in the brink to protect women’s rights from the far left radicals trying to erase us." 

Harry Sisson, a Democratic content creator on TikTok, likewise accused Mace of "straight up bigotry and bullying." 

Mace quoted his X post and wrote, "All these radical left men pushing other men into women’s private spaces shows you how sick they truly are – the Left will do whatever they can to harm women and girls. As a victim of abuse and as an advocate for other women abused by men, four words for you: Over My Dead Body." 

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Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., called Mace's effort to ban McBride from the ladies' room "pathetic." 

"What are you scared of, Nancy?" he asked.

To which Mace quoted his reply and wrote, "I don’t want people with penis’s [sic] showing them off in our locker room." 

In a follow-up post, Phillips asked, "Why wouldn’t we ‘allow’ our fellow citizens the right to use the damn toilet of the gender by which they live their lives? 

"You may not like it. I get it. But it’s still common sense and banning it seems un-American," he continued. "So come-on patriots, let’s be cool with one another." 

But Mace refused to back down. 

"As a victim of abuse, I know firsthand women are vulnerable; and I will stand in the way of anyone who violates our rights or who wants to set us back 100 years," she wrote.

Semafor politics reporter David Weigel observed that Mace's position is a "shift" to the right after she supported a Republican alternative to the Democrat-backed Equality Act, which would have added sexual orientation and gender identity language to federal anti-discrimination law.

The GOP's "Fairness for All Act" would have extended civil rights protections to gay and transgender people but exempted religious institutions, nonprofit organizations and certain individuals. 

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

She went on to say gender issues are not "black-and-white." 

"I do believe that religious liberty, the First Amendment, gay rights, and transgender equality can all coexist. I’m also a constitutionalist, and we have to ensure anti-discrimination laws don’t violate First Amendment rights or religious freedom," Mace said at the time.

"I have friends and family that identify as LGBTQ," she added. "Understanding how they feel and how they’ve been treated is important. Having been around gay, lesbian, and transgender people has informed my opinion over my lifetime."

Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.