Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, a physician and former White House doctor, told Newsmax on Tuesday that he believes inpatient mental health facilities should play a role in treating transgender people, whom he said have underlying psychiatric issues.
Appearing on "Finnerty" with host Rob Finnerty, Jackson asserted that "these people have psychiatric illnesses to start with. ... These are people that have gender dysphoria, which is a real psychiatric issue."
Jackson's comments come in the wake of conservative leader Charlie Kirk's assassination last week. Authorities allege that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was romantically involved with a man transitioning to a woman. Texts and chat room posts released by law enforcement attributed to Robinson purport that he took umbrage with Kirk's religious position on transgender people, calling it "hatred."
Jackson, who served as White House physician to Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, argued that gender dysphoria is the reason the U.S. military currently limits transgender enlistment.
"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," he said.
Jackson further contended that many transgender people have been "taken advantage of" by political and media forces, exacerbating underlying conditions.
"They have an underlying level of aggressiveness," he said of transgender women, adding that left-wing media "come in every single day telling them that they are victims."
He went on to argue that transgender Americans face "legitimate psychiatric issues related to the stuff that they've been exposed to" and that society needs to respond with stronger mental health interventions:
"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," Jackson said.
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