A prominent digital rights activist, who is transgender, confronted Rep. Nancy Mace at a public event Thursday, days after the South Carolina congresswoman introduced a resolution to ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms in the U.S. Capitol.
Evan Greer, the director of Fight for the Future, stood during the kickoff panel at “The Summit of the Future of the Internet” at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and displayed an LGBTQ pride flag. Mace spoke alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and radio host Charlamagne tha God on the topic “Bipartisan Tech Solutions to Unite a Nation.”
“We have seen dozens of transgender people die this year because of the hate and lies you spread,” Greer said to applause from the audience as she was escorted from the room. “Are we building an internet with freedom of speech for everyone or just for the privileged few?”
Mace responded by misgendering Greer and making a comment about her genitals, which the crowd booed. A representative for Mace and Project Liberty, the organization that organized the summit and invited Greer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Greer’s organization is known for its viral protest efforts against internet censorship and surveillance and in support of net neutrality.
Videos of Greer at the event have been viewed more than 1 million times on X, where conservative influencers and Mace have continued to abuse and insult Greer.
In an interview with NBC News, Greer said Project Liberty has not yet contacted her or made any statement about the panel, her protest or Mace’s comments. While Greer said she had hoped that other people, including cisgender people (those who identify with their gender assigned at birth), would have joined her in opposing Mace’s presence on the panel, she said, “Ultimately me there in the room. and I just couldn’t sit still.”
“My goal is to rally the progressive technology policy community and ask ourselves: What is our strategy for the next four years?” Greer said. “Are we going to try to curry favor with people whose goals are diametrically opposed to human rights, or are we going to draw a few lines in the sand and build a meaningful strategy for collective resistance to the role technology will play in carrying out human rights violations?”
Greer said, “I’m not trying to convince her of anything, but basically my goal was to start a conversation within the technology policy space, to ask ourselves, ‘What are we actually fighting for?'”
After taking office in 2021, Mace initially said she was pro-LGBTQ rights. But in recent days, she has made headlines and increased social media engagement by leading an anti-transgender campaign against the only transgender member of Congress, Sarah McBride, a campaign that has received the support of House Speaker Mike Johnson.
McBride, who has repeatedly mistreated Mace, said in a statement that she would follow the new bathroom rules set out by Johnson even if she disagreed with them. McBride will have a private bathroom in her congressional office, while all other public bathrooms in the Capitol will be banned for transgender people.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
