At a public event on Thursday, a well-known transgender digital rights activist challenged Representative Nancy Mace, just days after the South Carolina lawmaker presented a resolution to prohibit transgender women from using women’s restrooms in the U.S. Capitol.
During the opening session at The Summit of the Future of the Internet at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Evan Greer, the director of Fight for the Future, raised his hand and waved an LGBTQ pride flag. Mace was discussing Bipartisan Tech Solutions to Unite a Nation with radio personality Charlamagne tha God and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna.
As she was led out of the room, Greer remarked, “To the cheers of the audience, we have had dozens of trans people die this year because of the hate and lies that you are spreading.” Are we creating a free-speech internet for the privileged few or for everyone?
The audience jeered at Mace’s misgendering of Greer and remark regarding her genitalia. A request for comment was not immediately answered by a representative of Mace and Project Liberty, the group that organized the meeting and invited Greer. Greer’s group is well-known for its widely shared protests in favor of net neutrality and against internet censorship and spying.
More than a million people have watched videos of Greer at the event on X, where Mace and conservative influencers have persisted in insulting and misgendering Greer.
Greer claimed in an interview with NBC News that Project Liberty had not contacted her or released any information regarding the panel, her protest, or Mace’s comments. “In the end, I was there in the room and I just could not sit silently,” Greer stated, adding that she had hoped that other individuals, especially cisgender persons (those who identify as the gender assigned to them at birth), would have joined her in rejecting Mace’s attendance on the panel.
I want to challenge the progressive tech policy community to consider our approach over the upcoming four years. “Greer said.” Will we define some boundaries and develop a viable plan for collective opposition to the role that technology will play in enforcing human rights breaches, or will we attempt to appease those whose objectives are completely at odds with human rights?
I’m not trying to persuade her of anything, Greer stated, but my main objective was to get the tech policy community to think about what we’re fighting for.
Following her inauguration in 2021, Maceinitially declared her support for LGBTQ rights. However, in recent days, she has garnered attention and increased social media engagement by spearheading an anti-transgender campaign against Sarah McBride, the sole trans member of Congress, which has gained the backing of House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Despite her disagreement with the new bathroom regulations, McBride, whom Mace has frequently misgendered, stated in a statement that she will abide by them. McBride will have a private restroom in her congressional office, but transgender persons will not be allowed in any of the Capitol’s public restrooms.
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