Nancy Mace Gets Blunt Reminder After Criticizing 'Queer Eye' Star For Golden Globes Dress

Rep. Nancy Mace was called out after she criticized Jonathan Van Ness, the nonbinary star of the hit Netflix docuseries Queer Eye, for wearing a dress to the Golden Globes—except Mace has her own recent history with gender-bending fashion.

Since November, Mace has garnered national attention for her campaign against Democratic Representative Sarah McBride of Delaware, the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.

Mace introduced a resolution to bar McBride from using women’s facilities at the Capitol complex, has posted extensively on social media—hundreds of times—targeting transgender individuals, and made multiple media appearances advocating for anti-transgender policies.

Throughout her efforts, Mace has claimed to support gender nonconformity, asserting that the existence of transgender people poses a threat to gender-nonconforming individuals. In December, for example, she tweeted, “Girls who are tomboys are still girls,” referencing the unfounded anti-transgender narrative that children who deviate from gender stereotypes are being pressured to transition.

Now Mace has moved on to attacking Van Ness, who came out as nonbinary in 2019 and frequently wears clothing associated with various genders in public, including at last night's Golden Globes, where they wore a Christian Siriano gown. They have also faced transphobic comments about their appearance for years.

In response to a post by anti-LGBTQ+ hatemonger Chaya Raichik—the woman behind "Libs of TikTok"—who wrote, referring to Van Ness, that a “Grown man dresses up as a woman" and "looks absolutely ridiculous," Mace said:

“An actual woman wouldn’t be seen in public wearing that.”

You can see her post below.

But Mace's hypocrisy is rather rich considering she was once accused by her own party of supporting transgender people because she wore a tuxedo to the 2023 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

The comment was made by Randan Steinhauser, a self-described “Counter-Cultural Christian Conservative WOMAN,” according to her Twitter bio. Steinhauser also raised Mace’s stance on abortion during her tweet.

She wrote:

"[Nancy Mace]—I have known you for a longtime. But your recent anti-life statements & positions are very concerning."

"Further, as our culture continues to undermine women by celebrating men who pretend to be them—why would you choose to wear a tux to the WHCD?"

You can see her post below.

Mace responded with multiple tweets, the first one criticizing Steinhauser's "pearl clutching" and attacks against her appearance while referencing Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid’s Tale by saying:

"This ain't Gilead."

You can see her post below.

Mace later posted a photo in which she compared herself to former First Lady Melania Trump, who wore a tuxedo at a previous event and criticized Steinhauser further:

"Curious… who wore it better? Then vs. now? I love freedom and liberty, including being free to wear a tux."

"[Randan Steinhauser] Your attacks on me today are pretty antithetical. But you do you."

You can see her tweet below.

Mace was swiftly mocked for her hypocrisy as people reminded her of her own fashion choice.

Unsurprisingly, Van Ness has been very vocal about their support for the transgender community.

In 2023, Van Ness addressed the conservative controversy over transgender people in sports, saying they "could just cry because I’m so tired of having to fight for little kids, because they just want to be included."

At the time, Van Ness added that they "wish that people were as passionate about little kids being able to be included or grow up as they were about fictitious women’s fairness in sports. I have to tell you I am very tired.”

Meanwhile, Mace's proposal to bar transgender people from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity in House-controlled spaces was not included in the rules package for the 119th Congress.

However, the package, which closely resembles policies from the previous Congress, did feature one notable anti-trans provision: a measure redefining Title IX compliance in athletics to base eligibility exclusively on sex assigned at birth. This codification, a major Republican priority, was paired with the first bill in the package, explicitly targeting transgender athletes.