A heroic, incomplete stand

The Citadel, established in 1842, is the third oldest senior military college in the United States, founded to train and educate young men as well as protect the state arsenals of South Carolina. The first woman admitted to the South Carolina Corps of Cadets program at The Citadel was Shannon Faulkner, who fought for two-and-a-half years in court to force her way into the all-male institution. The first woman to graduate from the program—in 1999—was Nancy Mace, who wrote a memoir about her experience titled In the Company of Men: A Woman at The Citadel in 2001. She is now a Republican congresswoman from South Carolina.

In a twist of historic irony, Rep. Mace is now leading a crusade to keep men out of female-only spaces. Rep. Tim “Sarah” McBride, D-Del., is being celebrated by LGBTQ activists as the first “transgender woman” elected to Congress, and last Monday, Mace introduced a resolution restricting female spaces to women only and explicitly excluding “biological males.” Despite being accused of “targeting” McBride, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., enacted the new rule on Wednesday. “I am not going to stand for a man … in the women’s locker room—that’s not OK,” Mace stated.

She has since put forward a bill that would expand the policy to all federal buildings nationwide. It is called the Protecting Women’s Private Spaces Act, and it reminded me of Mace’s Oct. 30 post on X: “As the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, I refuse to let a man in a mini skirt undermine the hard-won accomplishments of women and girls.” Women’s spaces are sacred. Men’s spaces? Not so much—not even in the military. Sex-segregated spaces for me, but not for thee, and all that.

Mace is right on the issue of sex-segregated spaces. But her entire career highlights the fact that she has been a staunch ally of the sexual revolution right up until the moment it went too far for her. “We support gay marriage, and voted for the Respect for Marriage Act twice,” she stated on Wednesday. “However, if you think protecting women is discrimination, you are the problem. We don’t care if you’re trans, if you [are a man] we don’t want you in the women’s bathroom.” Mace apparently doesn’t see how one led to the other. If gender doesn’t matter in marriage, it doesn’t matter anywhere.

When Mace calls herself a defender of “women’s rights,” she means what progressives mean. She is currently the loudest abortion advocate in the GOP, running on a pro-abortion platform in her congressional race. She released ads emphasizing her role in establishing South Carolina’s abortion exceptions and videos calling opposition to in vitro fertilization “crazy.” In a campaign video, Mace said, “I was the first Republican to speak out after the crazy 1864 Arizona ruling. I’ve spoken out about the unconstitutionality of court cases in Texas regarding Mifepristone and Trisomy 18. I’m the most vocal woman on women’s rights and women’s issues in the Republican Party.” Another ad emphasized her support for abortion.

I am afraid that Rep. Mace may, indeed, be the face of the new Trump GOP. She supports the LGBTQ agenda circa 2012. She not only supports but campaigns for abortion. She is a sexual revolutionary through and through—but now she wants to draw her own line in the sand. After a career fighting on the wrong side, Mace understandably objects to the revolution occupying the stall next to her in the women’s restroom. Although she does not seem to understand it, Nancy Mace is now fighting the world without a sense of boundaries she helped create. She may not like the story, but she helped write the script.