A prominent digital rights activist who is transgender confronted Rep. Nancy Mace at a public event Thursday, just days after the South Carolina congresswoman. presented a resolution to ban transgender women from using women’s bathrooms in the US Capitol.
Fight for the Future director Evan Greer stood up and displayed an LGBTQ pride flag during the opening panel at Georgetown University’s Future of the Internet Summit in Washington. Mays was speaking with Democratic Republican Ro Khanna and radio host Charlamagne tha God on “Bipartisan Tech Solutions to Unite a Nation.”
“Dozens of trans people have died this year because of the hate and lies you’ve spread,” Greer said to cheers from the audience as he was escorted out of the room. “Are we building a free-speech internet for all, or a privileged few?”
Mace responded by misgendering Greer and making a comment about her genitalia, prompting boos from the crowd. A representative for Mace and Project Liberty, which hosted 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 its support for net neutrality.
Greer’s videos at the event have been viewed over 1 million times on X, where conservative influencers and Mace continue to misrepresent and insult Greer.
In an interview with NBC News, Greer said Project Liberty has yet to contact him or make any statements about the panel, the protest or Mace’s words. While Greer said she hoped other people, including cisgender people (identified by the sex assigned at birth) would join her in opposing Mace’s participation on the panel, she said, “In the end, I was in the room. and I just couldn’t sit quietly.”
“My goal is to call the progressive tech policy community and ask ourselves, what is our strategy for the next four years?” Greer said. “Are we going to try to sympathize with people whose goals are diametrically opposed to human rights, or are we going to draw some lines in the sand and build a meaningful strategy for collective resistance to the role technology will play in realizing human rights. violations?”
Greer said, “I’m not trying to convince him of anything, but really my goal was to open up a conversation in the tech policy space and ask ourselves, ‘What are we really fighting for?'”
Mace after taking office in 2021 he said first he was an advocate for LGBTQ rights. However, in recent days, she has made headlines and engaged on social media by campaigning against transgender people. campaign Against Sarah McBride, the only trans member of Congress received support Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Mace repeatedly misgendered, McBride said statement that he would follow the new bathroom rules set by Johnson, even if he didn’t agree with them. McBride will have a private bathroom in his congressional office, while all other public bathrooms in the Capitol will be off-limits to transgender people.