Transphobic Minnesota State Sen. Justin Eichorn (R)
Minnesota state Sen. Justin Eichorn (R), 40-year-old married father of four children, supported a bill to ban transgender female athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports. He also recently introduced a bill to designate “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as an official mental illness. He was just arrested for trying to have sex with a 16-year-old girl.
Republicans like Eichorn have long claimed that they want to ban trans people from female sports, restrooms, and locker rooms to “protect” girls and women, but cisgender men like Eichorn continue to victimize cis girls and women far more than any other group.
Related:
Police arrested and booked Eichorn on Tuesday. In a statement, police said Eichorn “thought he was talking to a 16-year-old female” and arranged to meet her. When he arrived and stepped out of his truck, he was met by a group of police officers who arrested him.
Stay connected to your community
Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter.
“As a 40-year-old man, if you come to the Orange Jumpsuit District looking to have sex with someone’s child, you can expect that we are going to lock you up,” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said.
In a statement, the Senate Republican caucus wrote, “We are shocked by these reports and this alleged conduct demands an immediate resignation. Justin has a difficult road ahead and he needs to focus on his family.”
In a joint statement, House Speaker Lisa Demuth and House Republican Leader Harry Niska called on Eichorn to resign over “the seriousness of the charges,” adding, “While he is entitled to due process, we must hold legislators to a higher standard.”
In yet another statement, Heidi Kraus Kaplan, executive director of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party wrote, “Senator Eichorn is an immediate danger to the public and must resign immediately.”
Eichorn is a co-sponsor of S.F. 2531, a bill that would allow anyone to accuse a female athlete in school sports of being transgender. Any player accused of being trans would then have to get a signed physician’s statement indicating the athlete’s sex that is based solely on their internal and external reproductive anatomy; their naturally occurring level of testosterone; and an analysis of the student’s chromosomes.
On Monday, Eichorn made national headlines when he and four Republican state legislators introduced legislation to add “Trump derangement syndrome” to the state’s definition of mental illness. The syndrome is not a recognized mental illness and such designations are typically made by large medical authorities and associations, not legislators.
His bill defined Trump derangement syndrome as an “acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons” that produces “general hysteria, [and] … an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump’s behavior.”
State Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy (D) criticized his legislation as “possibly the worst bill in Minnesota history.”
“If it is meant as a joke, it is a waste of staff time and taxpayer resources that trivializes serious mental health issues,” Murphy said. “If the authors are serious, it is an affront to free speech and an expression of a dangerous level of loyalty to an authoritarian president.”
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.
