U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace has again used a dehumanizing slur for transgender people — this time directly to a trans student who was simply attending her event at the University of South Carolina.
Mace was scheduled to give a speech at the event Monday hosted by USC’s chapter of Turning Point USA, a right-wing student organization designated as an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Republican was unable to complete her remarks before students began demanding answers on immigration, abortion, student loans, and her use of derogatory language.
One student, 20-year-old Harley Hicks, was filmed approaching Mace at the stage to ask for an apology over her repeated use of a transphobic slur. Hicks said in the video, "I would like for you to apologize because it is derogatory, and second of all-" but before she could continue, Mace cut her off to use the slur again.
"Is tr*nny really derogatory?" Mace asked, grinning.
"Well, yeah," Hicks said. "Of course it fucking is."
"Tr*nny. Yeah, tr*nny, tr*nny, tr*nny," Mace repeated.
Hicks could then be seen picking up a potted plant and moving it out of the way so she could pick up something else that was behind it before walking away. Mace posted the interaction on X, formerly Twitter, misgendering Hicks and claiming she intended to assault her with the plant.
Hicks told the South Carolina Daily Gazette that the idea that she would attack Mace is laughable, as showing up to the event at all as a trans person was one of the bravest things she had ever done.
"I’m like a shark, more afraid of her than she is of me,” Hicks said, adding, “If I were attacking her, you’d have seen a very different video."
It is not the first time Mace has used the slur, though she uses it with the smugness of a child who has just learned their first curse word. She used the term in December to refer to a group of protestors on Capitol Hill who were speaking against her and House Speaker Mike Johnson's anti-trans bathroom ban targeting Sarah McBride, the first out trans member of Congress.
Mace again used the slur during a House Oversight Committee hearing in February, when she fallaciously referred to a USAID grant as "paying for tr*nnies in Guatemala." When Democratic Virginia U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly told her that the term was considered a slur in the LGBTQ+ community, Mace shouted, “Tr*nny, tr*nny, tr*nny! I don’t really care!"
Earlier this week, Mace made news after a confrontation with a gay constituent who asked her about hosting townhalls. She cussed at him and said he had gotten in her face. The video she herself posted on social media disputed that claim.
