Nancy Mace to “double down” on anti-trans rhetoric following alleged assault – but did she fabricate the story?

This blog is originally appeared at LGBTQ Nation

Mace faces accusations of staging a “self-serving publicity stunt.”

A 33-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly assaulting Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) in retaliation for her recent opposition to trans rights.

“I was physically accosted at the Capitol tonight by a pro-tr*ns man,” Mace wrote on X. It’s unclear why she chose to censor the word “trans,” but given her outspoken anti-trans views, she may be signaling that she considers it a term to be stigmatized.

“One new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm and it’ll heal just fine,” she continued. “The Capitol police arrested the guy. Your tr*ns violence and threats on my life will only make me double down. FAFO. #HoldTheLine.”

A statement from U.S. Capitol Police confirmed that foster youth advocate James McIntyre of Illinois was arrested for allegedly assaulting Mace after lawfully entering the building through security. According to sources who spoke to Axios, the incident occurred during an event for the Foster Youth Caucus, of which Mace is a co-chair.

However, three eyewitnesses have accused Mace of fabricating the assault, claiming that she and McIntyre simply exchanged a standard handshake, during which he asked the Congresswoman to protect trans rights.

“From what I saw, it was a normal handshake and interaction that I would expect any legislator to have with a constituent,” former foster youth and LGBTQ+ rights advocate Elliot Hinkle told Imprint.

Hinkle further noted that McIntyre’s arrest – he is also a former foster youth – sends a troubling message: “It sends a chilling effect of, you’re not actually safe to go to Capitol Hill and share an opinion that is true for you, that isn’t violent — because right now if you do, a congressperson might say that they were physically assaulted and call the police on you. So how would a young person in care feel safe?”

In a Facebook post, foster youth advocate Lisa Dickson expressed her frustration with Mace’s actions at the event: “I want to express deep disappointment in the fact that Congresswoman Nancy Mace came to a national foster youth event, told participating youth that it was a safe space — and literally had one of them arrested by Capitol police for simply shaking her hand and asking about trans rights.”

She added in a follow-up: “Today was not the day or the time for a self-serving publicity stunt – especially not a politician lashing out at a vulnerable young person who just took her at her word that, when helping foster youth, ‘all suggestions are welcome.’”

Mace, who has long espoused anti-trans views, has escalated her rhetoric since trans Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) won her race for Congress in November.

In response to McBride becoming the first trans person ever elected to Congress, Mace introduced a resolution to ban trans women from using women’s facilities at the Capitol, as well as legislation to bar trans people from using restrooms on all federal property. This comes despite the fact that trans people have been working at and visiting the Capitol for years without incident, and McBride, as a member of Congress, would receive her own private bathroom.

Although Mace’s resolution has not yet been voted on, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has already instituted a rule prohibiting trans people from using restrooms that correspond with their gender at the Capitol complex.

Over the past several weeks, Mace has continued to escalate her anti-trans rhetoric, even casually using an anti-trans slur in reference to protestors.

After a group of trans rights protestors demonstrated against her, she filmed a social media video in which she said, “Alright, so some tr***y protestors showed up at the Capitol today to protest my bathroom bill, but they got arrested, poor things. So I have a message for the protestors who got arrested. You ready?”

She then took out a bullhorn, despite already being audible through her microphone, and proceeded to read the standard Miranda rights into the bullhorn while facing a police officer. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

Her use of the slur sparked widespread backlash.

And now, it appears that Mace is regularly using the bigoted term in her rhetoric.

“My staff has arrived to another wonderful morning in Washington, DC. Good morning, tr*nnies. #HoldTheLine”
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace), December 9, 2024.

Mace has been leveraging transphobia as a cornerstone of her political career since before she was elected to Congress. In her first campaign, she falsely claimed that a law requiring “transgender equality in the military” existed, blaming her Democratic opponent for it and suggesting that it would result in a Marine Corps base in her district being shut down. The claim was entirely fabricated—no such law existed, and the Marine base remains operational today—but it helped her secure a seat in Congress.

In her second run for office, Mace ran an ad accusing her opponent of providing “SEX CHANGE SURGERY. PUBERTY BLOCKERS. GENDER CHANGING HORMONES. FOR CHILDREN?” Despite the fact that her opponent was a doctor at a hospital that did not provide gender-affirming care, the smear campaign was effective, leading to the opponent’s forced resignation.

Mace’s record on LGBTQ+ rights is abysmal, scoring just 15 and 14 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard. She has voted against the Equality Act, which would ban federal discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, and opposed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act because it included protections for transgender inmates.

In her ongoing crusade against trans rights, Mace has referred to Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) as “it” and as a “man,” and has made efforts to block McBride from using women’s restrooms at the Capitol. In addition, she has started selling anti-trans t-shirts and has stated that it’s “offensive” for McBride to believe she is “equal” to other congresswomen.

January 2, 2025 0

Ted Cruz wrongly labels two cisgender teenage girls as “boys” in a misguided attempt to attack transgender athletes

This blog is originally appeared at LGBTQ Nation

Ted Cruz exploited the images of two minors without their parents’ consent, misrepresenting them as “boys in girls’ sports.” This misleading tactic serves his narrative while disregarding basic respect for privacy and accuracy.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s relentless pursuit of transgender targets in a series of hateful attack ads aimed at his Democratic opponent, Colin Allred, has backfired. Cruz has landed in controversy after using the images of two cisgender teenage girls without their parents’ permission. The girls appear in at least two fear-mongering ads that attack both the trans community and Allred, where they are pictured alongside former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and CeCé Telfer, a Jamaican-born sprinter and the first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA title. The use of their likenesses has sparked outrage from the girls’ parents and their high school.

In one of the ads, a photo of the two teens at an Oregon high school track and field event is shown, while a narrator ominously declares, “Boys in girls’ sports.” This misleading and inflammatory statement further fuels the attack on transgender athletes, misrepresenting the two girls and distorting the issue.

A representative from the Beaverton School District has demanded that the ads be removed “from any and all distribution platforms,” following an email sent to the Cruz campaign and shared with The Hill. The district’s representative emphasized that the two athletes pictured are minors and made clear that neither the family, the school, nor the district had given permission for the photo to be used.

“It is alarming that your campaign would have produced, distributed, or promoted this ad with false information, especially with minor children involved,” the representative wrote.

The photo originally appeared in an April report by Central Oregon Daily News, which covered a controversy involving a transgender high school athlete in the state. In response, a Cruz campaign spokesperson claimed the image depicted “a female athlete who spoke out against boys playing in girls’ sports after participating in a track meet where a biological male beat female athletes and impacted individual and team medal results.” However, the spokesperson did not address the misleading labeling of the two young women as “trans boys.”

Despite the campaign’s focus on anti-trans rhetoric, Cruz and his fellow MAGA Republicans continue to push this divisive messaging, even as they ignore voters’ top priorities, such as the economy and healthcare. This strategy echoes the failure of 2022, when the GOP’s massive ad campaign centered on similar anti-trans tropes and failed to produce the expected “red wave” in the midterm elections.

Democratic nominee Colin Allred, who is locked in a tight race with Cruz, has condemned the senator’s anti-trans attack ads as a “disgusting, false attack,” accusing Cruz of trying to “divide Texans.” Josh Stewart, a spokesperson for Allred, added, “Cruz will say anything to distract from his dangerous abortion ban that is putting women’s lives at risk, his efforts to raise the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare, and his shameful escape to Cancun during a deadly winter storm.”

November 12, 2024 0

Elon Musk’s role in stirring unrest in Britain was just a preview. Look at what he has in store for America

This blog originally appeared at SUPPORT THE GUARDIAN.

The presidential election is just three months away. What if the billionaire disputes the outcome? What if he concludes that democracy no longer holds value?

Just over three years ago, an insurrectionist mob connected online, gathered in Washington, stormed the Capitol, and threatened the vice-president with a noose. But those were the “good old days.” We’re now in a different reality—one where billionaires are no longer restrained.

Back in 2020, tech platforms, still reeling from public backlash, at least pretended to care. Twitter had more than 4,000 employees in “trust and safety,” focused on removing dangerous content and monitoring foreign influence. Facebook, despite resisting pressure, eventually banned political ads that aimed to undermine voting, while researchers worked to identify and flag harmful disinformation.

Despite vast numbers of Americans believing the 2020 election was stolen, and a violent mob nearly staging a coup, things have only worsened in the four years since.

While Kamala Harris is enjoying her “hot girl summer” and liberal America breathes a sigh of relief, the U.S. should shift its gaze to Britain. There, rioters fill the streets, cars burn, and rampant racism spreads unchecked across multiple platforms. Lies, fueled by algorithms, circulate long before the truth emerges, only to be sanitized by politicians and media opportunists.

Just as Brexit foreshadowed Trump’s rise in 2016, Britain is once again a warning sign. The same patterns, tactics, and figures are appearing on both sides of the Atlantic—but now with even more dangerous technological weaknesses ready to be exploited.

For now, Britain’s streets are calm, and the violence suppressed. But in the U.S., where militias roam and open-carry laws are commonplace, the threat is much greater. No matter how well Harris performs in the polls, the U.S. is on the brink of an extraordinarily dangerous moment—no matter who wins the election.

As Trump and Bolsonaro have shown, it’s no longer just about winning elections or a single day. The period between election results and inauguration has become a volatile, anything-can-happen moment—not just for the U.S., but for the world.

In Britain, we’ve already seen the warning signs. This summer, we witnessed something unprecedented: a billionaire tech owner publicly challenging an elected leader, using his platform to undermine authority and incite violence. The 2024 summer riots in Britain were Elon Musk’s test run.

If Musk decides to “predict” a civil war in the U.S., what would that look like? He has already gotten away with it once. The sheer supranational power of this and the potential consequences should be terrifying. What happens if Musk contests an election result or deems democracy irrelevant? This isn’t science fiction—it’s a scenario just months away.

None of this is occurring in isolation. After 2016, there was a brief effort to understand how tech platforms had been exploited to spread lies and disinformation. But that moment has passed. A concerted, years-long effort by Republican operatives to politicize “misinformation” has succeeded. The term barely registers in U.S. tech circles today. Those who continue to raise the issue—academics, researchers, trust and safety teams—are labeled part of the “censorship industrial complex.”

A U.S. congressional committee led by Republican Jim Jordan, convinced that big tech silenced conservative voices, aggressively pursued emails from dozens of academics, chilling the entire field of research. Entire university departments, including the Stanford Internet Observatory’s election integrity unit, which played a key role in 2020, have collapsed.

Even the FBI was blocked from communicating with tech companies about an anticipated surge of foreign disinformation after a lawsuit from two attorneys general made its way to the Supreme Court. The New York Times reported that only recently has the FBI quietly resumed such efforts.

All of this has created the ideal conditions for tech platforms to quietly step back. Twitter—now X—has let go of at least half of its trust and safety team, but so have nearly all major tech companies. Thousands of employees once tasked with rooting out misinformation have been laid off by Meta, TikTok, Snap, and Discord.

Just last week, Facebook shut down one of its last transparency tools, CrowdTangle—a critical resource for understanding online activity during the tumultuous days surrounding the 2021 inauguration. Despite the protests of researchers and academics, Facebook axed it simply because they could.

Back in 2020, these efforts felt meager and inadequate against the growing threat. Now, they’ve disappeared just as the tools that spread misinformation are growing even more dangerous. OpenAI recently boasted about identifying an Iranian group that used ChatGPT for a U.S. election influence campaign, which might sound impressive if their trust and safety team hadn’t been disbanded in May after its co-founders resigned.

Musk, now the self-styled “Lord of Misrule,” has ripped off the pretense entirely. He’s shown that there’s no need to even act like you care. In his world, trust means mistrust, and safety means censorship. His goal is chaos—and it’s on the way.

(This article was amended on 22 August 2024 to correct a reference to the storming of the U.S. Capitol, which occurred just over three years ago, not four. The inauguration referenced should have been the 2021 inauguration, not 2020.)

— Carole Cadwalladr, reporter and feature writer for the Observer