On Tuesday afternoon, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama declared via social media, “I’m heading to the Senate floor to talk about how the Democrat-Socialists have intentionally caused mass gender-confusion among our young people, leading to violence and a disturbing trend of online ‘furry’ culture.”
Evidently, he was quite serious, holding the Senate floor for roughly 20 minutes, peddling a variety of offensive claims about transgender people and even calling for prison sentences for physicians who provide gender-transition care. For good measure, the Alabaman added: “It is in the best interests of our country to bring back mental institutions as a normal part of our society. … 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. It’s coming.”
But that’s not all he said.
Toward the end of his scripted remarks, Tuberville expressed specific concern related to airline personnel. According to a transcript published online by his office:
It is clear that this gender confusion is a mental illness plaguing our society, and there is significant overlap between people who are gender confused and the furry community. Research shows that 25% percent of furries are gender confused, and it’s more evidence of our society going to heck in a hand basket when we have stuff like this going on.
What’s more concerning is that this [mentally-unwell] furry community touts the fact that many — listen to this — that many airline pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers are part of the furry community. Lord help us. It’s terrifying when you think about this. When you walk on to 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.
Well, you can make this up, and by all appearances, Tuberville did make this up. (Whether the GOP senator believes the pilots, flight attendants and air traffic controllers are wearing costumes in their free time, or while performing their professional duties, wasn’t altogether clear.)
But as odd as the floor speech was, the broader electoral context was of particular interest: In six weeks, Alabama voters will elect their next governor, and Tuberville is both the Republican nominee and the odds-on favorite.
As the midterm cycle enters the home stretch, in other words, this guy’s closing message has nothing to do with the affordability crisis or the nation’s ongoing war, and everything to do with “bringing back mental institutions” and fearing furries who fly airplanes.
Tuberville’s Democratic rival is former Sen. Doug Jones. Watch this space.
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