President-elect Donald Trump’s explosive congresswoman Nancy Mace actually used to boast about being ‘pro trans,’ but is now in the midst of an X tirade—including repeatedly calling transgender people ‘mentally ill.’
In July 2023, Mace positioned herself as an ally, even going as far as to say that she supported children exploring their gender identities. Children changing pronouns, coloring their hair and wearing gender-fluctuating clothes didn’t bother the South Carolina rep, she said.
“If they wanna take on a different pronoun or a different gender identity or grow their hair out, or wear a dress or wear pants, or do those things as a minor—those are all things that I think most people would support. Be who you want to be, but don’t make permanent changes as a child,” Mace said on The Takeout on CBS News.
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She added: “They may decide as an adult, ‘Hey, instead of being Johnny, I want to be Jill’—that’s OK,” she said.
Mace now appears to have done a complete 180 on her views. Recent Elon Musk-backed messages mark a stark departure from the congresswoman’s pro-trans rhetoric.
Early Tuesday she even shared a typical culture war post by X commander-in-chief Musk, who has had a high profile falling out with his own trans daughter. In the meme shared by the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, ‘mental illness’ is referred to. Mace shared it and urged people to ‘hold the line,’ also dubbing the billionaire a ‘legend.’
“Your mental illness is not my new reality,” the MAGA attack dog barked in another post, echoing Musk’s meme.
In texts with CNN this week, she reiterated her past support for LGBTQ rights—and said her recent departure in tone was more to do with protecting women’s private spaces.
Mace also appears to have amped up restrictive measures on trans people in her state. Last week, she introduced a motion in the U.S. House of Representatives to ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms at the Capitol. Mace now wants this to apply to every federal building and federally funded school.
Her ratcheting up came after the election of the first out transgender person in Congress, Sarah McBride. For her part, McBride, said the vitriol was “an attempt to misdirect” voters away from more central issues.
The Delaware rep, who will join Donald Trump’s new administration in January, told CBS on Sunday: “I think we are all united that attempts to attack a vulnerable community are not only mean-spirited but really an attempt to misdirect.”
Mace’s opinions haven’t always been so easy to discern. Just a month after voicing her support of children exploring their identities, she took a stand against transgender women competing in women’s sports.
