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I'm not going to sugarcoat it: One of the reasons Trump won last Tuesday was that he was backed by a powerful right-wing media ecosystem that promoted his lies. In this election, this pro-Trump network was more potent than media outlets with an allegiance to the truth.
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Donald Trump's successful 2024 presidential campaign, along with its Republican allies, spent more than $215 million on television ads that stoked resentment against trans people. One ad from the Trump campaign, aired in heavy rotation, sought to convince voters that their tax dollars, with Vice President Kamala Harris' support, were being diverted to trans criminals.
"Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners and illegal aliens," the narrator claimed. "Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you."
In a 2019 questionnaire, Harris said she supported providing trans inmates with "medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care." This is required under a 1970 Supreme Court case, which states that "prisons are legally required to provide necessary medical care to inmates, or risk violating the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment." That is why, under the Trump administration, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, provided "an array of gender-affirming treatments, including hormone therapy, for a small group of inmates who requested it during Mr. Trump’s four years in office."
Legalities aside, providing taxpayer dollars for trans prisoners is not a politically popular position. An analysis by Future Forward, a Super PAC that supported Harris, found the ad "shifted the race 2.7 percentage points in Mr. Trump’s favor after viewers watched it."
But the ad is effective because it's highly misleading. There are almost no taxpayer dollars spent on surgeries for trans inmates because almost no surgeries have been provided. Only two trans inmates have ever been provided with surgical care — and only at the conclusion of lengthy legal battles. There are no known cases of undocumented immigrants being provided with taxpayer-funded surgeries while detained.
In other words, it was an issue ginned up by the Trump campaign to exploit voters by demonizing trans people.
Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC) used to reject this kind of politics. “I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality,” Mace said in a March 2021 interview with the Washington Examiner. “No one should be discriminated against.” Mace added that she believed "religious liberty, the First Amendment, gay rights, and transgender equality can all coexist." Mace added that she had "friends and family that identify as LGBTQ" and "[h]aving been around gay, lesbian, and transgender people has informed my opinion over my lifetime."
Mace supported "compromise" legislation that protected LGBTQ from discrimination while providing notable exceptions for religious institutions. “I feel like it’s my duty to speak up on these issues, and to sponsor legislation on these issues, because I want people on both sides of the aisle to know that there are Republicans that care,” Mace said. “That we are compassionate. There are many of us that want equality for everybody.” (She opposed the more expansive Equality Act.)
In June 2021, Mace tweeted we should "all come together to celebrate the challenges our LGBTQ+ has overcome and the bright future ahead."
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In 2023, while Mace opposed the participation of trans women in collegiate athletics, she described herself as "a woman who is pro-LGBTQ." Mace said she did not "care how you dress" or "what pronoun you take." In September 2023, Mace was one of 18 Republicans who joined Democrats to defeat "an amendment that would defund Pride Month celebrations sponsored by the State Department."
In the days after Trump's victory, however, Mace's views and rhetoric on trans people have changed significantly.
On Monday, Mace introduced a resolution banning trans women from using female bathrooms in the U.S. Capitol. The resolution is targeted at a single person: Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE), who will become the first trans member of Congress next year.
In statements to the media, Mace attacked McBride in personal terms, depicting her as a threat. "This is a biological man trying to force himself into women’s spaces, and I’m not going to tolerate it," Mace said. Asked if she planned to discuss her resolution with McBride, Mace responded, "No, Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say."
On X, Mace engaged even harsher anti-trans rhetoric targeting McBride, describing her "an incoming Congressman who likes to wear mini skirts and wants to invade the privacy of women."
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In other posts on X, Mace said that if anyone criticized her resolution, she would "call you out for putting women and girls in harm’s way." Mace also posted that "playing make believe dress up doesn't mean you should be allowed in women's private spaces" and called her critics "perverted."
She also reposted a mean-spirited attack from the notoriously bigoted Libs of TikTok account that mocked and misgendered McBride.
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Mace seems eager to make