A House hearing descended into bedlam Wednesday when GOP firebrand Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) referred to “trannies,” a derogatory slur for a transgender person — setting off the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
“Does this advance the interest of American citizens — paying for trannies in Guatemala to the tune of $2 million?” Mace asked a panel during a hearing on “Rightsizing government” Wednesday.
She had rattled through a list of programs funded by the US Agency for International Development and peppered the panel with questions about whether those expenses served American interests.
After she wrapped up her questioning, Oversight ranking member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) lodged a parliamentary inquiry over Mace’s use of the term “trannies.”
“The gentlelady has used a phrase that is considered a slur in the LGBTQ community and the trans community,” Connolly pleaded with Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.)
“Let me please finish without interruption,” he added before Mace interjected.
“Tranny, tranny, tranny!” Mace, 47, hit back. “I don’t really care. You want penises in women’s bathrooms and I’m not gonna have it. No, thank you. It’s disgusting.”
Connolly, 74, who announced last year that he has “cancer of the esophagus” and edged out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the top Dem perch on Oversight, was not pleased.
“To me, a slur is a slur,” he said. “And here in the committee, a level of decorum requires us to try consciously to avoid slurs. You just heard that gentlelady actually actively, robustly repeat it.”
Mace fired back and insisted that she was “not going to be counseled by a man over men and women’s spaces or men who have mental health issues dressing as women.”
Comer punted on the request, noting that he’s “not up to date on my politically correct LGBTQ term terminology” and will “look into” Connolly’s petition.
Mace, who has served in Congress since 2021, introduced legislation late last year to safeguard women’s spaces across the Capitol complex and federal government spaces writ large.
That legislation came in response to the election of Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly transgender member of Congress.
House GOP leadership later announced that women’s facilities in the Capitol complex would be reserved for biological women and McBride agreed to comply.
Last month, Mace and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Col.) stormed into the women’s bathroom near the speaker’s lobby after seemingly suspecting a biological male was in there, Bloomberg reported.
Eventually, through methods that weren’t entirely clear, they determined that a male wasn’t present in that facility.
“There was a rumor there was, but it wasn’t true,” Boebert later told the outlet.
The Oversight hearing on Wednesday came as Republicans in Congress are eager to complement Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) boss Elon Musk in reining in government excesses.
