And it should be noted that many in the academic wing of fascism recognize that that change was partly the result of political pressure from activists and want to revert it. Targeting gender dysphoria is just the easy first stage.

Ultimately the scary truth is that mental illness is a socially constructed category and many mental illnesses have components with social elements. The difference between a paranoid schizophrenic hearing the voices of demons and a prophet hearing the voices of benevolent gods/ancestors can be what society they lived in. Being psychologically unable to function is inherently tied to what society deems functioning to entail. Deciding if someone is accurately perceiving reality requires an agreed upon reality.

Authoritarians know this. Maybe they wouldn’t frame it like that, but they understand it nonetheless, they just often believe that they should be the arbiters of what functioning entails and of what reality is like.

If marrying and reproducing is the base expectation of society, then an unwillingness to do so can be mental illness (and that’s why you shouldn’t expect only homosexuality to be pathologized). If it is accepted reality that Jesus Christ performed miracles, rose from the dead, and smites masturbators, then it can be deemed delusional to think otherwise, no different from professing that aliens stole your nose for use as an aphrodisiac. If the government’s goals will bring about prosperity for all, then resisting the government makes you a danger to yourself and others.

We’ve already accepted that the insane don’t have freedom from government prosecution protection when they use their free speech display harmful symptoms. And the scary bit is that it’s not like it’s good or helpful to not permit any form of involuntary commitment. I can’t say what the solution is, I just know the problem.