Alabama GOP Chair: Trans Candidates Have “Mental Disorders”
Terri Osborne and Allison Montgomery push back against Scott Stadthagen's attacks, accusing Republicans of ignoring voters' real concerns.
Two transgender candidates running for the Alabama Legislature are pushing back against the state Republican Party chairman, who misgendered them and said they have “mental disorders.”
“We’ve got two men who have mental disorders who like to dress like women, who think they are females on the ballot this general election,” State Rep. Scott Stadthagen (R-Hartselle), chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, told the Eastern Shore Republican Women at an October 8 event in Fairhope, Alabama. “One’s in Madison County, one’s in Baldwin County. That is a mental disorder, ladies and gentlemen.”
The candidates are Terri Osborne, a Daphne geologist running for Alabama House District 96 against Danielle Duggar, an anti-vaccine activist and “medical freedom” advocate; and Allison Montgomery, a Huntsville software engineer running for House District 25 against Republican State Rep. Phillip Rigsby.
Osborne challenged Stadthagen’s characterization of transgender people as mentally ill, noting that the American Psychiatric Association does not classify being transgender as a psychiatric diagnosis.
“The American Psychiatric Association has made that distinction clear. I have letters from mental health professionals stating that I am of sound mind. Does he?” Osborne told AL.com.
Duggar also piled on, misgendering Osborne and describing her views as “quite radical.”
“So he (sic) identifies as a woman, and he (sic) wants that type of ideology taught in schools,” Duggar said. “He (sic) wants to make sure that kids know they have a choice, I guess, in their gender, and this is not what we want representing us in Montgomery.”
Osborne challenged her Republican opponents to identify any campaign proposal calling for so-called “gender ideology” to be taught in schools.
“Acknowledging the reality that transgender people exist is not indoctrination or an ideology,” Osborne said. “My existence is not a sexual performance, and my womanhood is not a threat to anybody’s children.”
She also accused Stadthagen and Duggar of fixating on her gender identity while ignoring pressing issues facing Baldwin County residents, including the cost of groceries, housing, insurance, and health care; traffic; public school funding; and Alabama’s refusal to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Addressing Duggar, she asked: “Danielle, instead of telling voters what you think is wrong with me, why don’t you tell them what you’re actually doing to make their lives better?”
Montgomery told the Alabama Political Reporter that Stadthagen’s comments reveal his personal prejudices.
“I don’t know Stadthagen and he doesn’t know me,” she said. “This is just plain prejudice.”
Montgomery also said voters she meets on the campaign trail are more concerned with education, health care, and affordability, and rarely fixate on her gender.
“When I’m knocking doors and talking with voters, they don’t care that I’m trans, and that’s not what I’m focused on either,” she said.
She accused Republican officials and candidates of using her gender identity to distract voters from their party’s political failures.
“They brought up my womanhood because they have failed at governing,” Montgomery said. “Ask yourselves, if I hadn’t transitioned, would your gas be cheaper? Would your utilities be cheaper? Would groceries be more affordable? Would your medical debt go away? No; so it’s just plain weird that Stadthagen and other State House Republicans are so obsessed with me.”
Montgomery and Osborne drew attention to the recent arrest of two-term State Rep. Brett Easterbrook (R-Fruitdale), who was charged with attempted human trafficking after allegedly offering $500 for sex with a woman he believed was 18 — an age classified as a minor under the state’s anti-trafficking law.
Both Montgomery and Osborne questioned why Stadthagen has not shown similar outrage toward Easterbrook, a member of his own party.
“[T]he GOP will keep telling you that LGBT folks are the threat to your children so that their friends can keep getting away with actual child abuse,” Montgomery said.
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