Fly the furry skies.
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville claimed the airline industry is full of members of the “furry” subculture in a bizarre speech from the Senate floor connecting transgenderism to mental illness.
“Gender confusion is an extremely serious mental problem that our society better start addressing. Unfortunately, these gender-confused individuals aren’t just harming themselves; they’re also turning into violent people and hurting other people,” the GOP Senator said Tuesday during his 20-minute speech.
“In 2022, a study found that youth who identify as gender confused are at the highest risk of becoming violently radicalized,” he said, standing beside an easel displaying a posterboard featuring the “pregnant man” emoji — which was rolled out to Apple devices in March 2022 — with the heading “transgenderism is a mental disease.”
The website Furscience defines furries as a community in which most individuals “create for themselves an anthropomorphized animal character (fursona) with whom they identify,” noting that some “wear elaborate costumes (called fursuits) or paraphernalia such as animal ears or tails, or represent themselves as anthropomorphic animals in online communities such as Second Life.”
Tuberville pointed out recent examples of political violence allegedly perpetrated by those with ties to the furry community, including accused Charlie Kirk assassin, Tyler Robinson.
“The investigation into Tyler Robinson revealed that he was living with a man, his lover, who is a gender-confused [individual] and was going by the pronouns of ‘she/her.’ Tyler himself was involved in transgender, furry culture — a bizarre subset of transgenderism where people are sexually attracted and frequently dress up as animals,” he said.
“Thomas Crooks, the lunatic who shot President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024 was also [involved] in online transgender furry culture and apparently used ‘they/them’ pronouns,” he continued.
“While there are still a lot of questions surrounding what happened that day in Butler, we do know that this young man seemed to be at least somewhat involved in the gender-confused cult.”
The furry subculture has even permeated the US airline industry, Tuberville claimed, noting there is “significant overlap” between people who are transgender and the furry community.
“What’s more concerning is that this [mentally unwell] furry community touts the fact that many — listen to this — that many airline pilots, flight attendants and air traffic controllers are part of the furry community. Lord help us,” he said.
“It’s terrifying when you think about this. When you walk on to a commercial flight, it’s possible that the pilot flying your plane could have a deranged fetish of dressing up like an animal. You can’t make this up.”
He then called for a reinstatement of mental institutions “as a normal part of our society” instead of “sweeping it under the rug.”
“Otherwise, we’re just sitting ducks until the next gender-confused person decides to show up at our churches or our schools and start committing acts of violence. It’s coming,” he claimed.
Tuberville, a first-term Senator, decided not to seek re-election to run for governor of Alabama.
His opponent, former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, called Tuberville’s remarks “the strangest speech on the floor of the United States Senate I have ever heard.”
The match-up is a replay of the 2020 Senate race in which Tuberville trounced Jones by 20 points.
Tuberville currently leads Jones 49% to 41% among likely voters, with 11% undecided, according to a recent statewide poll, the closest the race has been.
Voters will go to the polls to decide the next governor on Nov. 3.
