• Rep. Nancy Mace praised Iowa’s new law removing gender identity as a protected class from the state’s antidiscrimination law, echoing anti-transgender rhetoric.
• Mace repeated an anti-transgender slur at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s spring kickoff, echoing her previous use of the same slur at a February U.S. House hearing.
• An Iowa LGBTQ advocacy group condemned Mace’s language, while other GOP speakers doubled down on anti-transgender messaging.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican who is a vocal anti-transgender voice in Congress, praised Iowa’s new law removing gender identity as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act in a visit Saturday to the Hawkeye State where she repeated a transphobic slur.

“You are leading a nation,” Mace said to cheers from the audience gathered for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s spring kickoff in Clive. “You are leading our country. It’s not just about protecting women and girls. Yes, it’s about protecting our boys, too. They deserve it. Democrats can’t even define what a woman is.”

Iowa was thrust into the national spotlight after Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law in February, ending 18 years of protections against discrimination for transgender Iowans.

The move drew heated protests that packed the Capitol with hundreds of transgender Iowans and LGBTQ advocates decrying the legislation, warning it would expose people to discrimination in housing, employment and other facets of life.

More: ‘Just let me exist’: Angry Iowans protest bill ending transgender civil rights protections

Mace later repeated an anti-transgender slur Saturday as she mentioned allegations that she was assaulted last year at the U.S. Capitol by someone who was “pro-trans.” Federal prosecutors have dropped all criminal charges against James McIntyre, the Chicago-based foster care advocate and transgender activist Mace accused of assault.

“Can I say trans in Iowa? Can I say tr—-? Can I say it three times?” said Mace, who has shared she is “seriously considering” running for South Carolina governor in 2026.

The crowd laughed as she said the slur three times, harkening back to her news-making moment in February where she repeatedly used the same slur during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing. Reynolds was called as a witness to testify in the hearing on government efficiency.

Mace used the slur in February as she asked witnesses to weigh in on USAID, a U.S. foreign aid agency, awarding $2 million to strengthen transgender-led organizations to deliver gender-affirming healthcare in Guatemala.

The term Mace used is considered derogatory, defamatory and dehumanizing for transgender people according to GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy organization.

Statewide LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa condemned Mace’s rhetoric in Iowa in a statement Sunday.

“While it comes as no surprise that GOP leaders continue to spread anti-trans language, condoning the use of offensive slurs is a new low,” said Keenan Crow, One Iowa’s policy and advocacy director. “This kind of language serves no purpose other than to demean a group of Iowans who deserve the same respect and dignity as anyone else, and therefore should have no place in the political discourse of any serious party or public official.”

Nancy Mace is a prominent anti-trans voice in Congress

Mace has led the charge in Congress to bar trans women from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity on federal property, openly looking to block her colleague Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Del., the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, from using the women’s restroom at the Capitol.

House Speaker Mike Johnson ultimately implemented a rule for the current Congress banning transgender women from using female restrooms near the House chamber.

“Bless their hearts, the far left in our society today no longer understands the difference between male and female, and this is a battleground that Congresswoman Mace and I have shared within the last few years,” said state Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, who was born and raised in South Carolina.

Holt said he received death threats and had to have armed security with him during the week that Iowa lawmakers fast-tracked the civil rights law changes to the governor’s desk. He was floor manager of the bill, tasked with shepherding it through the legislative process.

Republicans have said the law was necessary to protect other recent Iowa legislation from court challenges, including a ban on transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming medical care, restricting transgender students from using school bathrooms that align with their gender identity and banning transgender women and girls from competing in female sports.

“We restored immutable truth to the Iowa Civil Rights Code,” Holt said. “The governor signed into law despite thousands of transgender activists screaming profanity and calling us Nazis.”

Jeff Pitts, a lobbyist for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, expressed gratitude to lawmakers who “removed the great gender identity fiction from the state civil rights code.”

“Thank you for standing strong for women, thank you for standing up for girls and maybe most of all thank you for literally laying down the law in defense of what’s real,” Pitts said. “The truth still matters, at least in Iowa.”

GOP speakers double down on anti-transgender messaging

Mace’s remarks underscored an evening that heavily featured GOP messaging against policies supporting transgender people, signaling anti-transgender rhetoric may become an even more common message on the campaign trail leading up to the 2026 midterms.

It’s an increasingly prevalent Republican campaign message although transgender people make up an estimated 1% of the U.S. population, Census Bureau data show.

Attorney General Brenna Bird, who hinted at throwing her hat in the ring to the wide-open race for Iowa governor in 2026, touted joining a lawsuit against the Biden administration “to keep him from forcing that radical gender ideology into our Iowa schools.”

The lawsuit argued Biden’s proposed Title IX rule changes would force schools to allow transgender and nonbinary students share locker rooms and restrooms with female students and would penalize students who oppose transgender rights on religious grounds. The Trump administration has dropped the federal government’s appeal in the case.

“Here in Iowa, we protected our girls and women in school, didn’t we?” Bird said. “… We sued and we defended the laws that we have as a state, and I’m proud of our Legislature and what they have done, lighting the way to show America what it looks like.”

U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the Republican representing southeastern Iowa’s 1st District, joined in cheering for Republicans’ November election wins thwarting Democratic policies on transgender issues.

“We were told that boys can play in girls’ sports because it’s fair,” Miller-Meeks said. “We slayed that dragon. We were told that men can be women just because they say they are. We’ve got another thing coming for them. We’ve slayed that dragon, and we’re going to continue one after another after another, until every single one of those woke dominoes fall.”

In her closing remarks, Mace portrayed the nation as being “in a battle” between good and evil and cast the political left as a dangerous force that the room full of Republicans needed to defeat in the 2026 midterms.

“I will never apologize for saying men don’t belong in women’s locker rooms,” Mace said. “Men don’t belong in women’s sports and they don’t belong in women’s shelters. I will never apologize for saying a woman is an adult human female, because women were made by our creator.”

USA Today reporter Kinsey Crowley contributed to this article

Marissa Payne covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. Reach her by email at mjpayne@registermedia.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @marissajpayne.