Nancy Mace Calls for Anti-Voyeur Legislation in Hearing, Shares Blurred ‘Naked Silhouette’ After Being Recorded Without Consent

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) called for anti-voyeur legislation during a hearing on Capitol Hill wherein she shared a blurred “naked silhouette” screenshot of herself being recorded without consent.

Mace was chairing the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on surveilling people in private spaces.

“Freedom is not a theory. It is the right to breathe. It is the right to dress and undress, to sleep without someone’s camera filming your naked body. The Founders wrote liberty in parchment, but hidden cameras erase it in pixels,” Mace said. “I speak not just as a lawmaker, but as a survivor.”

The congresswoman displayed a poster board behind her featuring a wide-angle security camera view of a living room with a blurred figure in the doorway.

“Behind me is a screenshot from one of the videos I found of myself. The yellow circle, my naked silhouette, is my naked body,” Mace said. “I didn’t know that I had been filmed. I didn’t give my consent. I didn’t give my permission.”

Mace further called upon lawmakers to back her Sue VOYEURS Act, which would create a civil right of action, and the Stop VOYEURS Act. Her call comes months after she accused several men of secretly recording women and girls with hidden cameras at a rental property co-owned by her ex-fiance, per The Hill. Her  ex-fiance, Patrick Bryant, has strongly denied the allegations.

“I categorically deny the false and outrageous claims made by Nancy Mace. I have never raped anyone. I have never hidden cameras. I have never harmed any woman. These accusations are not just false—they are malicious and deeply personal,” Bryant said. “My mistake was loving and trusting someone who later weaponized our relationship.”

Bryant said that several witnesses disputed Mace’s account and that he has complied with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s investigation. Since the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause protects lawmakers from lawsuits for what they say and do to advance legislation, Bryant called on her make her accusations outside the House chamber.

“If she believed them to be true and there was evidence to support her accusations, she would say them outside the chamber—away from her public role and protections and pursue them through proper legal channels. She has not done so, because she cannot,” Bryant said

“This isn’t advocacy. It’s an abuse and exploitation of her political position for the sole purpose of promoting herself politically. Her allegations are absolutely baseless,” Bryant added. “And, I will, at the right time, do whatever is necessary and appropriate to clear my name, to prove my integrity, and to restore my reputation in the community.”

Mace shot back and told The Hill, “I don’t really give a fuck what Patrick Bryant has to say.”

“I’ve written over a dozen bills to protect women and kids, based on my experiences, both personally but also working with victims for the last year and a half, and it has informed my legislative process,” Mace said. “When I went through this, I surely thought the Violence Against Women Act had provisions to protect victims of voyeurism. It didn’t. There’s not even a civil tort in the Violence Against Women Act for women who are victims of voyeurism.”