JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City-area state senator is under fire after telling a transgender medical student that he won’t listen to doctors who disagree with God during testimony over anti-LGBTQ legislation.

The heated exchange from Sen. Joe Nicola, a Grain Valley Republican, occurred at the Missouri Capitol Wednesday, according to audio and video footage obtained by The Star. The debate centered on legislation that would enact a bathroom ban for transgender residents and define sex as male and female only, part of a wave of anti-LGBTQ bills filed in Missouri.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Charlie Adams, a medical student at Kansas City University, testified against the legislation. Adams, who is transgender, spoke about his journey of transitioning after growing up in a Catholic household.

“I hugely respect your expertise as lawmakers and what you do for our state, but I do not respect your expertise as doctors because you haven’t been to medical school,” Adams told the panel of senators. “Please don’t make laws that go against what all major medical organizations in the world, led by the world’s leading physicians, have declared is medical fact nowadays.”

Nicola, a pastor by trade who sits on the committee, quickly responded.

“I don’t appreciate the way you just spoke to us, all right? I don’t have to be a doctor. I’m not a lot of things, but I was elected to make laws, all right?” Nicola told Adams. “And I make laws based on truth. And my truth is the word, the word of God, scripture. When God created one man and one woman, that’s my truth.”

Adams, in response, said, “respectfully, I personally don’t think it’s appropriate to make laws based off of religion.”

Nicola then interrupted Adams’ answer and launched into his own response.

“That’s fine, but I’m not going to listen to doctors either that say one thing that disagrees with the God of creation, or your schooling, or whatever is being said out there, because there’s all kinds of things out there that are being said,” he said.

Nicola did not respond to a call and text from The Star to explain his comments. But the exchange has sparked sharp criticism, particularly from PROMO Missouri, the state’s leading LGBTQ rights organization. The group, which shared a video of the hearing on social media, framed Nicola’s response as a “tirade.”

Robert Fischer, a PROMO Missouri spokesperson, told The Star that Nicola’s comments were an example of “white Christian nationalism.” In an interview with The Star later on Wednesday, Adams, the student in the video, called the senator’s statement “blatantly inappropriate.”

It’s also not the first time that Nicola, a freshman senator, has faced blowback for his beliefs.

During his campaign, Nicola promoted a more traditional conservative look to voters, including a focus on his opposition to abortion and promises to curtail crime and defend gun rights. He also hosted several events in which he promoted a new property tax freeze for seniors.

But reporting from The Star also revealed his more fringe beliefs, outlined in his online writings and sermons, that made critics question how he would govern.

Those statements included the idea that sometimes mental illness is actually demon possession, an argument that Missouri should “decouple” from the federal government and a claim that there’s “no such thing as separation of church and state.”

Nicola’s church in Independence also donated money to a political action committee that supported his candidacy, a move questioned by legal experts who spoke with The Star.

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