A Montana state representative has gone viral for a series of comments in which she seemed to display a shocking disregard for the wellbeing of her own daughter.
Republican Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, who recently sponsored a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors, implied in March during a debate on the floor of the Montana statehouse that she had blocked the treatment for her own daughter, even as her daughter was suicidal.
“One of the big issues that we have heard today and we’ve talked about lately is that without [gender-affirming] surgery the risk of suicide goes way up. Well, I am one of those parents who lived with a daughter who was suicidal for three years,” Seekins-Crowe said, according to a clip shared on Twitter, demonstrating how close to home the issue hit for her family.
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But it was what she said next that left observers so stunned.
“Someone once asked me, ‘Wouldn’t I just do anything to help save her?’ And I really had to think and the answer was, ‘No,’” Seekins-Crowe said.
She went on to call her daughter’s suicidal tendencies “emotional manipulation” and claimed that it was her responsibility as a parent to make decisions when her daughter had no “vision” for her life.
“I was not going to let her tear apart my family and I was not going to let her tear apart me because I had to be strong for her, I had to have a vision for her life when she had none,” she said.
When The Daily Beast reached out to Seekins-Crowe for comment, she denied that her daughter was transgender and called the reporting surrounding her remarks “untruthful.”
“My daughter is not and never has been trans. We have a wonderful relationship,” she said in a written statement.
Her remarks on the floor of the Montana statehouse were not her first run-in with controversy.
On April 2, progressive advocacy group Forward Montana named Seekins-Crowe its “Villain of the Week” over a “pro-life” bill requiring physicians to provide life-saving care on any infant “born alive,” even if it has no chance of survival.
Seekins-Crowe reportedly responded on Facebook by calling the title an “honor” on Facebook and referring to herself as the “Original Republican Gangster.”
Her recent comments about her daughter’s mental health drew significant backlash both from politicians and the public.
“I vehemently disagree with this speech by GOP state rep Kerri Seekins-Crowe,” tweeted Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA). “But you know what she didn’t say? That it should be the government’s role to make personal decisions for families. Why is she now shoving her private decision down other people’s throats?”
Others on Twitters believed the story showed a fundamental lack of empathy as a parent, with one user posting, “You are one vile example of what NOT to be as a mother or a human being. Why can't you accept your daughter as she is?”
Another compared the comments to the story of Leah Alcorn, an Ohio teenager who committed suicide after her parents forced her into conversion therapy.
“As a mother of a deceased 12 year old daughter I would give anything to hold again, even for a moment, Kerri Seekins-Crowe can fu*k all the way off. These monsters are the antithesis of ‘pro-life,’” another person tweeted.
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. You can also text or dial 988.
