Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson (TX) is just the latest GOP member to use the September 10 murder of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk to demonize transgender people (even though the suspect in Kirk’s slaying wasn’t trans).

In a Wednesday interview with the far-right media outlet Newsmax, Jackson said, “[Transgender] people have psychiatric illnesses to start with. These are people that have gender dysphoria, which is a real psychiatric issue. 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.”

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Charlie Kirk shooting suspect told trans roommate he “had enough of his hatred”

“They have an underlying level of aggressiveness,” Jackson added. “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. I’m all about free speech, but this is a virus, this is a cancer that’s spreading across this country.”

While gender dysphoria is recognized as a mental health issue by the American Psychiatric Association, trans people were allowed to serve honorably in the military under former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden before being banned by the current president. At least one federal judge has noted that numerous trans military members have served honorably and achieved distinguished commendations while also meeting the military’s admission standards.

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Jackson is just the latest Republican politician to use Kirk’s murder as a pretext for eradicating trans people from public life, falsely demonizing them as violent (even though the vast majority of deadly shootings are conducted by cisgender men).

The reality is that transgender people have a mental illness called “Gender Dysphoria” and the Democrats have TAKEN ADVANTAGE of them.

These people were fed lies by the far left and the liberal media leading them to believe they are victims, and made us out to be their… pic.twitter.com/dujEumGN99

— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) September 17, 2025

Shortly after Kirk’s murder, “proud transphobe” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) claimed that the person who shot Kirk was transgender — even using an anti-trans slur to describe this person — before authorities even arrested a suspect. The current suspect is not transgender, although he reportedly has a trans romantic partner.

The day after Kirk’s murder, right-wing commentator Steven Crowder claimed that criminal investigators had found gun cartridges at the crime scene engraved with unspecified “wording … expressing transgender and anti-fascist ideology.” His claim turned out to be completely untrue, but The Wall Street Journal and other mainstream news outlets reported it as fact, stoking the flames of conservative anti-trans sentiment.

On the same day, Donald Trump Jr. used the 24th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to claim that trans people are “more violent” than Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, two Islamic extremist terrorist groups. He made these baseless and untrue comments while discussing Kirk’s murder.

Following Kirk’s murder, President Donald Trump promised to use the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to persecute “Leftist” and non-governmental organizations that allegedly provoked the violence that led to Kirk’s murder. He pledged to “find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it.”

Trans, progressive, and other left-wing groups have interpreted the president’s comment as a pledge to persecute LGBTQ+ organizations and others representing marginalized groups.

Republicans are overseeing an ongoing crusade to eradicate trans people from existence. The president has issued several executive orders and made public statements referring to trans people as mentally ill, selfish, dishonorable, deceitful, and undisciplined. He has ordered all federal agencies to deny trans people’s existence and to end any trans-inclusive policies, including the provision of gender-affirming care under federally funded healthcare.

Denying any legal acknowledgment and inclusive care of trans people seeks to forcibly detransition all trans people while using federal investigations and denials of government funding as a way to intimidate and harass trans allies.

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