Why Republicans Calling Trans People “Mentally Ill” Is More Than Just Rhetoric

You may have seen headlines about Senator Tommy Tubberville (R-CA) going on a tirade on the floor of Congress against the LGBTQ+ community, during which he claimed that transgender people are “deranged” and that being trans is a mental disorder. He went so far as to call for the resurrection of mental institutions as a way to lock away people who do not meet societal norms, just as was common in the 1950s and ’60s. Tubberville’s rant is not only aligned with the views of many members of his party; it’s dangerously reminiscent of pre-1970s, when LGBTQ+ people were medically designated as mentally ill in previous versions of the DSM, the standard guidelines used by mental health professionals to diagnose and treat mental disorders, which was used as an excuse to purge them from government jobs en masse solely for their identity. These diatribes by elected officials aren’t just isolated tantrums that remain in a vacuum. When people in power define queerness or transness as mental illnesses, it acts as a justification for rolling back the hard-won autonomy of LGBTQ+ people to be in control of their own careers, relationships, bodies, families, and beyond. If government officials can successfully convince the public that queer people do not have the mental capacities to control their own lives, it makes it much easier for the government to enact policies that restrict the decisions queer people can make for themselves, which is why it’s a widespread political strategy on the right. Rep. Nancy Mace’s rallying cries against trans people have a strong resemblance to Tubberville’s, stating throughout her time in office that transgender adults are mentally ill, and trans children are corrupted by “groomers.” In November of 2025, she stated that transgender people “are mentally ill and should be in a straitjacket with a hard-steel lock on it.” Her noxious animosity has only continued; this month she has taken to X several times to write, “There is n