On social media, men are threatening to bash my head in.
One of these anonymous harassers went so far as to imagine attacking me in a bathroom.
In America today, this is what happens to women when they advocate for their own safety.
As the first female graduate from South Carolina’s military college, The Citadel, and the first Republican congresswoman elected in the state, I’ve broken barriers all my life. I’m also a survivor of rape and domestic violence, and I still live with PTSD from these traumatizing experiences.
My advocacy isn’t political — it’s personal.
That is why I took the lead this week in introducing a House resolution to ban biological men from women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and other private spaces in the U.S. Capitol.
On Wednesday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson announced a policy that ratified my concerns. And like clockwork, the Democrats erupted.
But they’re not outraged over the dozens of death threats that I am now receiving. For that, they remain silent. Their anger is directed elsewhere – at me.
‘What Nancy Mace and what Speaker Johnson are doing are endangering all women and girls,’ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Thursday, as she ridiculously claimed that Republicans ‘want to be able to inspect [people’s] genitals to be able to use the bathroom?’
How vile… and predictable.
Of course, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez fails to mention that there are private bathrooms in each member’s office and unisex bathrooms available throughout the Capitol Complex for everyone regardless of gender identity.
She ignores that my soon-to-be colleague, Rep. Sarah McBride, who is transgender, said that she’ll follow the House rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson. And I look forward to working with Rep. McBride on issues important to us both.
To the Left this is a political talking point. To the millions of American it’s a matter of common sense.
I will not be shamed into silence or back down after being ludicrously branded a bigot.
I voted twice to allow same-sex marriage and I have sponsored legislation bolstering protections for LGBTQ Americans.
This fight is not about bigotry. It is about standing up for women and girls.
As a survivor of abuse, the idea of a biological man demanding to enter my dressing room is menacing – and I’m a grown woman capable and armed to protect myself.
But what about those who cannot defend themselves?
Nearly four years ago, California began allowing male inmates to be housed in correctional facilities in a ‘manner consistent with their gender identity.’
A poster boy for the law was Tremaine Carroll, a violent criminal and accused sex predator who was transferred in 2021 from a men’s prison to Central California Women’s Facility.
By May 2024, Carroll had been transferred back to a men’s lockup – indicted on two counts of rape of female inmates. Carroll’s case is ongoing.
This is an extreme example – but one that must be put forward because it shows how far transgender ideology has gone in America. It completely ignores the clear biological basis for the separation of the genders in private places.
A stunning reported 81 percent of American women experience some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. More than half of women have been sexually touched in an unwelcome way. More than one in four women have survived sexual assault.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and others also accuse me of blowing this issue out of proportion. Yet they are the ones who insist that all women must change how they live and compromise their well-being in favor of the approximately 1.1 percent of Americans who identify as trans.
I’m not seeking to limit anyone’s rights – I’m seeking to affirm the rights of women.
That’s why this House rule is only the beginning.
The U.S. Capitol is the seat of our democracy. It must set the standard. I am now introducing legislation to expand the same-sex bathroom policy across federal property nationwide and in schools funded by the federal government.
Women and girls deserve more than to have their needs ignored and protective boundaries erased.
One case of preventable abuse, assault or harassment is one too many. We must act before another woman or girl becomes a statistic.