Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) is now proposing that transgender people be mass institutionalized because “this is a cancer that's spreading across this country” and we “have to get them off the streets,” all while claiming that trans women “have an underlying level of aggressiveness.”
The MAGA lawmaker’s remarks come as conservatives are ramping up their anti-transgender rhetoric in the wake of the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, whose alleged shooter has a roommate and romantic partner who is currently transitioning genders.
According to law enforcement officials, the suspect – 22-year-old Tyler Robinson – confessed in a text exchange with the roommate that he had killed Kirk. “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out,” Robinson said in one text when asked why he had shot Kirk, who had long railed against transgender rights.
Robinson’s mother also told prosecutors that her son had become “more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented” in the past year. When Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University last week, he was debating a person on the prevalence of mass shootings carried out by transgender people.
At the same time, while the texts are illuminating, they don’t explicitly show which specific views of Kirk’s that Robinson thought were hateful. When asked at a Tuesday news conference if transgender issues played a role in the shooting, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said he was “going to stick to what I just stated in” the court documents, as it was “pretty much set forth there.”
During a Tuesday night appearance on Newsmax, Jackson was asked by host Rob Finnerty whether he thought “warning signs” were missed because Robinson went from a “fairly normal 20-year-old to a totally radicalized 22-year-old left-wing assassin with a trans boyfriend.”
Jackson, who previously served as Donald Trump’s presidential physician, immediately declared that both transgender people and those associated with the trans community are suffering from mental disorders.
“The underlying reality is that these people have psychiatric illnesses to start with. I mean, when I say these people, I’m talking about the people that are responsible for this, either transgender or associated with the transgender community,” the Texas congressman declared.
“These are people that have gender dysphoria, which is a real psychiatric issue,” he continued. “It's the reason that we don't allow them in the military at this particular point, because they have psychiatric issues, and they're not eligible to serve in the military, as anyone else who had any other psychiatric issue would be.”
Jackson was referring to the Trump administration’s decision to bar transgender people from enlisting in the military and discharging any active trans service members. The Supreme Court blocked a lower court’s order temporarily halting the ban's enforcement earlier this year.
“Being transgender and having gender dysphoria are not the same. Gender dysphoria is the experience of distress that can result when your sex assigned at birth does not match your gender identity. Not all trans people experience this distress or have gender dysphoria,” fact-checking site PolitiFact reported in January.
“Although persistent gender dysphoria can cause distress and other mental health issues, being transgender is not itself a mental health disorder, according to experts,” it added. Meanwhile, conservatives have engaged in a years-long smear of transgender people in an effort to portray them as “violent,” which has recently seen the Justice Department considering banning trans people from owning guns.
Claiming trans people have been “seized upon” by the left, Jackson went on to accuse liberals of “taking advantage of these people,” who he said are “vulnerable” because they “already have an underlying psychiatric issue where they don’t know what their gender is.” At the same time, he suggested that trans women are particularly dangerous to society.
“They have an underlying level of aggressiveness. I would say that’s there because they’re actually men, not women, right? And then they have the left-wing media come in every single day, telling them that they are victims, that they’re persecuted, that they’re prosecuted,” he exclaimed.
After repeating that they are portrayed as “victims” by the far-left and the liberal media, Jackson said trans people “are already prone to do some of the stuff that we’re seeing here” and being “facilitated” by Democrats and progressives.
“This is not a problem you see on the right,” he continued. “It’s a group of domestic terrorists that have been bred by the left, by the progressives, by the left, by the liberal media – including many that I serve in Congress with. They have made these people into who they are!”
Later in the segment, Finnerty aired a clip of Trump calling for an increase in the number of mental institutions in the country before turning to Jackson and asking if Republicans in Congress would do something to carry out the president’s vision.
“I don’t care what you call them. But a place where people can get the treatment that they need, so this doesn’t happen again,” the Newsmax host added, prompting Jackson to “absolutely” agree.
Claiming that there has to be a stop to doctors and pediatricians engaging in gender-affirming care, Jackson went on to argue that trans people face “legitimate psychiatric issues related to the stuff that they've been exposed to” before proposing stronger measures to be implemented. And, according to the congressman, that would include institutionalizing the trans community.
“We have to do something about this. We have to treat these people. We have to get them off the streets, and we have to get them off the internet, and we can't let them communicate with each other,” he insisted.
“I'm all about free speech, but this is a virus, this is a cancer that's spreading across this country,” Jackson concluded. “That’s going to do great damage to normal, hard-working, law-abiding people.”
The hard-right lawmaker, meanwhile, is not the only member of Congress who has seemingly called for transgender people to be locked up in mental institutions.
Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) – who spearheaded the effort to bar trans women from using Capitol Hill bathrooms that don't correspond with their sex assigned at birth – repeatedly used anti-trans slurs while saying transgender people are “mentally ill” and “should be in a straitjacket.”
Charlie Kirk suspect appears in anti-suicide vest as state seeks death penalty: Live
The Daily Show star schools Bondi after Trump AG threatens to go after ‘hate speech’
Both Trump and Vance are now set to speak at Charlie Kirk’s memorial this weekend
Jerome Powell finally does it: The Fed cuts interest rates a quarter of a percent
‘Not respected, wanted, or needed’: Thousands attend anti-Trump protest in London
Trump UK visit live: King and president set for lavish state banquet
