On Wednesday, California Democratic Representative Sara Jacobs decided to address the elephant in the room—the GOP in general and self-described "proud transphobe" South Carolina MAGA Republican Representative Nancy Mace in particular—over their hypocrisy regarding gender-affirming healthcare procedures.
Mace is trying to amend a Defense Department funding measure to ban gender-affirming care for military members and their dependents, among other anti-LGBTQ+ budget amendments.
Representative Jacobs stated:
"I would just like to point out that it’s interesting my colleague from South Carolina is so obsessed with the issue of trans people, using horrible slurs to talk about them, when many people in this body have received gender-affirming care."
The California Democrat then gave examples of such care—some of which Mace appears to have taken advantage of herself.
"Filler is gender-affirming care. Boob jobs—gender-affirming care. Botox is gender-affirming care."
"Lots of my colleagues have received gender-affirming care, and let me be clear, everybody should have access to the gender-affirming care they need, and I think that we should respect everybody in this country."
Whether it was being called out for her hypocrisy or attention being drawn to her cosmetic procedures, Mace was enraged by Representative Jacobs' statement of facts.
In yet another example of her unhinged behavior, Mace screamed at Representative Jacobs:
"Ridiculous. You are absolutely ridiculous. What the hell is your problem? You are disgusting. You are an insult."
You can watch the moment here:
GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson had not recognized Mace, making her outburst also a violation of congressional floor procedure.
Speaker Johnson stated, while wielding the House gavel:
"The gentlelady is not recognized. The House will be in order."
Mace's mic was cut, but she could still be heard shouting in the background as Johnson tried to restore order.
Unable to gain an audience via C-SPAN, Mace took to X to cry victim—claiming the comments about boob jobs, Botox, and fillers were all about her own body.
Mace finished her X post with what many consider an antisemitic dig about Representative Jacobs' nose, writing:
"PS—I have a good surgeon if you ever want to get your nose done."
Mace's post didn't rally support to her side.
Representative Jacobs told The New Republic in an interview on Wednesday:
"Look, I didn’t actually say anything about Nancy Mace. I said many of my colleagues have had this kind of care. I think it’s very telling that she thought that I was picking on her. It sounded like she told [on] herself."
"And to be honest, I think everyone should get whatever gender-affirming care they want. Like, you do you, girl."
"But the idea that she would use that to target this already vulnerable population is horrible. She knows it gets her headlines and clicks. She thinks it’s going to help her in her campaign for governor of South Carolina. And she’s targeting vulnerable young people to do that."
Earlier in the interview, Representative Jacobs explained the context of the House floor exchange, saying:
"[Mace] offered a number of amendments that would have prohibited gender-affirming care for service members and their dependents, which would have included mental health care, that would have stopped trans people from being able to use the restroom that they need. There was a number of other things she was trying to do."
"This particular one we were debating was preventing trans service members from using the bathroom that they need to use. And she has, over the course of the last few years, said some pretty terrible things about trans people, constantly using the T-slur, using words like deranged and all this other really emotion-evoking terminology."
"She went after [Delaware Democratic Representative] Sarah McBride when she first got here, and I think just generally has tried to get attention by targeting trans people and in particular trans kids."
The California Democrat added:
"[W]hat Nancy Mace is doing is not about misunderstanding. She is intentionally targeting a vulnerable group of people because she wants the attention."
"It is cruel. It is mal-intended. And it is not just about she said something wrong once. This has been a very strategic targeted approach she has taken."
In response to another post Mace tagged her in on X that same day, Representative Jacobs wrote:
"I feel sad for you. Stop lashing out against trans kids and pretending it's to 'protect women'. Hope you get the help you need."
While Mace may have been shocked to learn her alleged (personally confirmed?) extensive surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures intended to enhance her femininity were the definition of gender affirmation, others were aware that cisgender people routinely get work done to feel more feminine or masculine.
WCBD News 2/Facebook
WCBD News 2/Facebook
WCBD News 2/Facebook
WCBD News 2/Facebook
Johns Hopkins Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the Association of American Medical Colleges list brow lifts, jaw recontouring, forehead cranioplasty, breast augmentation, and operations or non-surgical medical procedures—like fillers or Botox—to enhance or reduce specific body features—such as the face and chest—to appear more masculine or feminine as gender affirming care procedures.
The World Health Organization (WHO) definition states "gender-affirmative health care can include any single or combination of a number of social, psychological, behavioural or medical (including hormonal treatment or surgery) interventions designed to support and affirm an individual’s gender identity."
These procedures are routinely performed on cisgender people seeking their idealized version of the gender they were assigned at birth. But Republicans being ignorant of current science and medicine isn't new. After all, most of them still think gender and sex are binaries after decades of research and data have proved otherwise.
Sorry you didn't know what gender-affirming care was, Nancy.
But ignorance of facts doesn't make them untrue.
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