Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who is currently running for governor of Alabama, went on a 20-minute, lie-filled rant on the Senate floor accusing trans people of being violent and “deranged” and proposing that the United States bring back mental institutions to house them.
Tuberville claimed there is a “rise in violence coming from people who the left refers to as transgender.”
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“Here in DC, it’s common to see parents plagued with the woke mind virus, forcing their young children to transition into the opposite sex,” he claimed. “These kids are so young and unaware that they don’t understand what’s happening so the long-term consequences of their actions are horrific.”
There is no epidemic of parents forcing their children to transition. Instead, the trans rights movement encourages parents to support kids who already exhibit signs of gender dysphoria, while trans people often have to assert their identities in the face of unsupportive parents.
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Tuberville claimed, however, that affirming parents are guilty of “child abuse.” He then outright lied, claiming that “in some cases, doctors don’t even tell parents that their underage kids is going and undergoing these dangerous procedures, and they go behind the parents’ backs.”
This does not happen. Not only do kids need parent/guardian permission to undergo any procedures or be given any medication, but gender-affirming surgery is almost never performed on minors anyway. Some trans teens may use puberty blockers or undergo hormone replacement therapy – with parental consent – but younger kids often simply socially transition, which means wearing the clothes and going by the name that makes them feel most comfortable.
But Tuberville claimed allowing a child to do this is “not kind.”
“It is not kind to affirm the delusions of someone who is clearly struggling with mental illness,” he said. “In fact, the kind thing to do is to sincerely encourage them to get help before they harm themselves and others. We must put a stop to gender confusion before more innocent people lose their life.”
He also claimed, “It is in the best interest of our country to bring back mental institutions as a normal part of our society instead of sweeping it under the rug,” Tuberville claimed in his speech. “Otherwise, we’re just sitting ducks until the next gender confused person decides to show up at our churches or our schools and start committing acts of violence.”
Tuberville may have been referring to an unfinished report embraced by the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this month which claimed to show a link between support for “gender ideology,” political violence, and left-wing authoritarianism. The study was neither peer-reviewed nor accepted for publication by a major scientific journal. It is full of dubious methodology, according to experts in the field, including a sorting technique that uses political ideology to identify an oversampled group of Democrats.
“I don’t think anyone would think this is a good measure of authoritarianism,” said Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, an epidemiologist from the University of Sydney.
“It was nakedly political. I think this is probably the most obviously political study that I’ve come across,” Meyerowitz-Katz told the Guardian.
Tuberville gave his anti-trans speech beside a large board displaying the pregnant man emoji, and above him, the words, “Transgenderism is a mental disease.”
And in one bizarre tangent, he claimed that “many airline pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers are part of the furry community.”
“Lord help us,” he said. “It’s terrifying when you think about this. When you walk onto a commercial flight, it’s possible that the pilot flying your plane could have a deranged fetish of dressing up like an animal. You can’t make this up.”
While there are no doubt furries who work in the aviation industry, being one is not related to being transgender or to flight safety. Participating in furry culture is a hobby that people do outside of work and shouldn’t impact their performance on the job. It also is not the same as being trans.
The concept of furries has been used by Republicans for years as a way to mock transgender people by falsely claiming that the trans rights movement has gotten so out of hand that schools are now allowing kids to identify as animals and use litterboxes.
Tuberville has spent years terrorizing the LGBTQ+ community – with repercussions for the entire country.
In 2023, he spearheaded a 10-month blockade of over 400 military promotions to protest so-called “woke” military policies that promoted LGBTQ+ inclusion and reproductive rights. One high-ranking military officer told the Senate that it will take years for the military to recover from the blockade.
During the blockade, he said the military was too “woke” because someone once read a poem about a homosexual sailor.
And in 2024, while promoting his anti-trans sports bill, he claimed Democrats not only hate women but are trying to make the entire gender extinct.
Last year, he said he wants transgender children to “live in fear” of their own parents and also claimed that “entire men’s teams” in the U.S. are transitioning just to win at women’s sports, something that is not happening.
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