S.C. Republican candidate said transgender people have 'issue with mental illness'

Kirk Brown | The Greenville News

GREENVILLE, S.C. — A Republican running for Congress suggested that transgender people are mentally ill at a political gathering this week..

“You're either a man or a woman — and if you’re confused, you’ve got an issue with mental illness," former South Carolina state Sen. Lee Bright said.

Bright made the remark during a Monday forum that featured a dozen candidates seeking to replace Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy. The forum was hosted by the Greenville County Republican Women's Club.

At Monday's event, the GOP candidates running for Gowdy's seat responded to questions about religion and faith after discussing an array of domestic and international issues.

“If we don’t get right, God is going to judge us, and let me tell you, it is going to be painful," said Bright, who sponsored a bill while serving in the state Senate that would have prohibited transgender people from using public bathrooms that do not match their birth gender. The measure failed to win approval.

State Sen. William Timmons said, "Our country needs to get back to biblical principles."

“We have gone so far from the Bible," he said. "We don’t even teach it in schools — we ban prayer in schools. But bizarrely, we give prisoners Bibles.”

Former Spartanburg County Republican Party Chairman Josh Kimbrell said he believes "our rights are from God, not from government, not from Washington, frankly not even from the Constitution.

"If we lose that belief that the rights come from a higher power than Washington, then we are no longer a free society," Kimbrell said.

Rep. Dan Hamilton of Greenville said his faith is a key reason that he decided to run for the seat that Gowdy is giving up.

"I want to serve my neighbors and preserve our country," he said.