Sponsors bill forcing transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to their ‘biological sex’

Said LGBT persons should ‘receive treatment’ instead of legal protections

A Minnesota Republican state representative named Glenn Gruenhagen has sponsored a bill which would force transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to their “biological sex” instead of their identified gender.

Gruenhagen asserted that his bill was based on an outdated version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), which he said labels all transgender people as mentally ill. The DSM-V was updated in 2012 to recognize that trans people suffered from Gender Dysphoria instead of “gender identity disorder” a clear distinction that the state of discomfort from being born the wrong gender was not a mental illness.

Homosexuals were classified similarly by the DSM until it was updated in 1973.

In an interview with WCCO radio host Chad Hartman, Gruenhagen claimed that homosexuals and trans people suffered from an “unhealthy sexual addiction.” He first made this claim in 2013, when the Minnesota Legislature was poised to pass marriage equality. At the time, Gruenhagen organized a press conference to prove that sexual orientation can be changed through prayer and counseling.

In 2011, he co-founded the Pro-Family Forum, which was formerly the Pro-Marriage Amendment Forum, with the help of his “former homosexual” friend, whose sexual orientation was magically changed through prayer and counseling.

“I have friends who are homosexual, and I have friends who are former homosexuals, okay?” Gruenhagen said, defending his position to WCCO’s Hartman. “The Centers for Disease Control — which is not a right-wing organization, I think we can all agree on that — recently came out with the report that we have between 65 and 100 million Americans that have an STD. 65 to 100 million. We’re approaching one third of our population has an STD.”

Gruenhagen’s organization placed a billboard in Elk River, MN urging LGBT persons to seek out “conversion therapy.”

Gruenhagen’s legislation and discriminatory rhetoric is the latest anti-LGBT viewpoints amid a growing intensity from state GOP lawmakers to continue legalized discrimination towards the LGBT community.

Last week, North Carolina passed what is widely regarded as the most anti-LGBT legislation in the country, effectively preventing its cities and counties from offering discrimination protections. On Monday, Georgia’s governor vetoed a similar bill that would have allowed businesses like adoption agencies refuse to serve same-sex couples, which SCOTUS rejected swiftly as well in Alabama.

Additionally last week, a Nebraska state senator said that legalized discrimination of LGBT persons is protected by the first amendment under “religious liberty” and that “men in dresses” don’t deserve protection under the law.

Yet another reminder that the Democrats need a strong showing in state elections this November along with the national races.