Just one week after voting in favor of a bill that attacks the rights of transgender minors to obtain lifesaving healthcare, a Republican state lawmaker in Alabama has been busted for viewing adult sexually-themed transgender material online, LGBTQNation reports.

The lawmaker in question, Alabama State Sen. Tom Whatley (R) “liked” a racy tweet by the account “Bambi Hardcore TG18+.” Bambi describes themself as an “enbi trans girl faerie princess.”

“I love my new, fat, G-cup tiddies,” their tweet said, alongside a photo of their breasts. The tweet was posted on February 15, 2021. It appears in Whatley’s “Likes” feed, and his work-related account appears in the tweets’ likes.

LGBTQNation writer Alex Bollinger surmised this may come as a shock to Whatley’s constituents. Especially since the lawmaker voted in favor of S.B. 10 last week in the state senate. This measure criminalizes doctors who provide gender-affirming healthcare to youth in accordance with well-established transgender care standards.

And no, this bill is not good news. Bollinger notes:

“The bill would be so draconian that a doctor who prescribes puberty blockers could get 10 years in jail for doing their job.”

The Associated Press reports that the legislation also covers talk therapy for transgender youth. Whatley attempted to add an amendment to the measure so that counseling could continue but the bill’s co-sponsor Shay Shelnutt opposed that, saying that he wants children to continue to be counseled but not on anything that “confirms a gender identity that conflicts with birth,” per the AP.

“We don’t want them affirming that, ‘Hey yeah, you’re right, you should be a boy if you’re born a female,” Shelnutt said.

While Whatley tried to add the amendment to exempt counselors from prosecution and that was shot down, he still voted in favor of the measure.

Bollinger notes that puberty blockers are the products of years of testing and are administered by doctors but the measure’s text states they may somehow “constitute dangerous and uncontrolled human medical experimentation that may result in grave and irreversible consequences to their physical and mental health.'”

So I guess Republicans somehow know more than the doctors or researchers who work on these treatments. Please note the use of tongue in cheek in that last sentence. Republicans rarely fail to stick their noses where they don’t belong and this instance is no exception.

As their name suggests, puberty blockers delay puberty so that transgender youth, their parents, and their doctors have time to find the best path to go forward effectively. If a trans person stops taking them, then puberty associated with their sex at birth resumes.

But puberty blockers have been found to significantly reduce suicidal thoughts in trans teens who were able to obtain them as compared to teens who didn’t have access to them. An additional study found the treatment improves the lives of transgender youths and helps them feel better about themselves. It also found that nearly all trans youth grow up to be transgender adults.

So in other words, this treatment helps young people become healthy and happy. No wonder Republicans don’t like it. And Whatley is a huge hypocrite for supporting this. How many times have we read about Republicans doing morally reprehensible things to children while at the same time repressing people who themselves are doing no harm to anyone? A few Democrats are also guilty but they are vastly outnumbered by Republicans.

LGBTQNation contacted Whatley to ask him why he liked the tweet but as of publication, he hasn’t responded. He did however un-liked the tweet in the aftermath.