Video: Trans activist and musician Evan Greer thrown out of DC conference after confronting Nancy Mace

Evan GreerAndrew Sacher
Video: Trans activist and musician Evan Greer thrown out of DC conference after confronting Nancy Mace

The same week as the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, South Carolina Republican House Representative Nancy Mace has been waging a war on the trans community, particularly within the U.S. Capitol, where she’s pushing to ban transgender women from using women’s bathrooms, an effort that she’s said was in direct response to the election of Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender person elected to Congress. “Yes and absolutely, and then some,” Mace told reporters. “I’m absolutely 100% gonna stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a women’s restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms. I will be there fighting you every step of the way.” (McBride, meanwhile, has said that she’s “not here to fight about bathrooms” after Speaker Mike Johnson officially announced on Wednesday that trans women would not be permitted to use women’s bathrooms in the Capitol. “Like all members, I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them,” McBride said.)

When Mace took her anti-trans campaign to Georgetown University for a Project Liberty summit, one person who showed up to speak out against Mace was transgender activist and musician Evan Greer. As seen in footage making the rounds on social media, Greer stood up at one point during the summit, and only got a few words out before she was grabbed and forcibly pushed out of the summit. “We have had dozens of trans people die this year because of the hate and lies that you are spreading,” she shouted as she was pushed out. “Are you building an internet with free speech for everyone or just the privileged few? Are you gonna stand up for the lives of trans people? Black and brown people? Are we fighting for justice or are we fighting for big tech?”

Mace herself posted video of the incident with the deeply transphobic caption, “God loves him, but his penis is not going to be in my bathroom.” In a quote tweet, she added, “Raging lunatic, pretending to be female, tried to rush the stage at me just a little bit ago. All because I don’t want men watching women undress in the locker room.” In yet another tweet, she referred to Greer as “Mentally Ill Batman.”

Greer then responded back to Mace on social media, saying, “I stood up and spoke the truth. I did not ‘rush the stage’ as everyone can see in the video you posted. You have done absolutely nothing in your career to address the harm and censorship of Big Tech. You’re too busy obsessing over other people’s genetalia. Get a hobby.” In a separate post, she added, “I could not sit silently by while an elected official who is spreading hate & lies that are getting trans people killed pretended to care about the future or the internet. So I spoke up during Rep Nancy Mace’s talk at the Project Liberty summit and was thrown out. I’d do it again.” The replies to Greer’s posts have been pretty nasty; you can see her posts below.

Thankfully, Nancy Mace’s tirades (of which there are many others not quoted here) are offset by other members of congress speaking out against her point of view, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who posted on Thursday: “Women know that men don’t scheme to ‘dress like girls’ to assault them. They do it every day in broad daylight. And the ones in power protect each other to keep it quiet. Just ask the House Ethics Committee. Or the President-elect of the United States. Leave women alone.”

Evan Greer’s latest album is 2021’s Spotify Is Surveillance, which came out in 2021 via Get Better Records and Don Giovanni. To quote Pitchfork‘s Sasha Geffen, the album “speaks truth to streaming giants, trans exclusionists, and extremely online leftists,” and the album itself is just one of many times that Evan has spoken out against both aspects of the music industry and social/political issues. The same year that Spotify Is Surveillance was released, Evan was featured in a list of 10 trans women musicians who are changing the world of punk rock on Alternative Press, alongside Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!, who Evan has shared the stage with. Earlier this month, she released the new single “Pinkwashing,” a collaboration with Victoria Ruiz of Downtown Boys.

Tags: Evan greer, Nancy mace