Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has been placed under Capitol Police protection following threats and confrontations over her stance on biological men having access to women’s facilities, as tensions escalate ahead of Congress welcoming its first openly transgender member.
The controversy intensified after Mace successfully pushed Speaker Mike Johnson to formalize restrictions on transgender access to Capitol bathrooms.
“I just don’t want your d*** in my face,” Mace told The Washington Times. “I don’t want to be forced to undress in front of a man in my locker room.”
Security concerns mounted for Mace after several incidents, including an attempt to rush her on stage at Georgetown University.
“Some guy tried to rush the stage last week trying to get at me. I’ve had multiple people in front of Capitol Police that were guarding me come up to me and try to verbally or physically accost me over the last couple of days,” Mace told Piers Morgan.
Mace, a rape survivor with PTSD, has intensified her campaign to protect women-only spaces, introducing legislation to extend bathroom restrictions to all federal buildings nationwide.
“I am more sensitive and aware of how women are abused in private spaces than I ever have been in my 46 years on Earth, and it’s just a deeply passionate issue for me,” she explained.
The controversy comes as Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-D.E., who will become Congress’s first openly transgender member, prepares to take office.
McBride called Mace’s efforts a “distraction” but indicated she would comply with Johnson’s directive to use the bathroom that coincides to their biological sex.
Rather than backing down from threats, Mace has amplified her message through social media and merchandising, posting over 300 times about the issue and selling $35 t-shirts featuring a women’s bathroom sign with the slogan “come and take it.”
“The fact that you’re willing to kill a woman over her right to privacy is insanity,” Mace said.
“I feel like the more that they come after me, the harder I’m going to fight back.”
Capitol Police protection for House members outside leadership is rare, and is typically reserved for those facing very specific threats, suggesting authorities consider the danger credible.