Texas senate candidates Senator Ted Cruz (R) and Congressman Colin Allred (D) answered questions about transgender rights at a debate in Dallas Tuesday night, a first in any high-profile debate of the 2024 election season.
Ahead of the debate, GLAAD documented the LGBTQ records of Cruz and Allred, here.
Rep. Allred was asked about Senator Cruz’s recent political ads attacking transgender participants in sports and saying the congressman refuses “to protect the integrity of women and girls sports.”
“Let’s be very clear about what’s happening in this campaign. You don’t have to be an NFL linebacker to recognize a Hail Mary when you see one. This is a desperate, last-second attempt to distract you because he can’t defend his own record,” Allred said. “Listen, I’m a dad, I’m a Christian, of course, I don’t support the ridiculous things that he’s talking about.”
“He wants you thinking about kids in bathrooms so you’re not thinking about women in hospitals, because it’s indefensible. We have Texas women being turned away from hospitals, bleeding out in their cars, in waiting rooms,” the congressman continued. “All of a sudden the protector of women and girls is going to be Sen. Cruz? Who thinks it’s perfectly reasonable that a girl raped by a relative, a victim of incest, should be forced to carry that child to term and give birth to it. You’re going to set yourself up as the protector of women and girls? It’s laughable.”
Cruz, who is known for his anti-LGBTQ track record, as documented by the GLAAD Accountability Project, made numerous lies in his response.
“Four times [Rep. Allred] has come out for men playing in women’s sports, for boys playing in girls’ sports. He is a co-sponsor and voted for a law called the Equality Act. The Equality Act mandated that boys be able to go in girls’ bathrooms, their locker rooms and their changing rooms. He voted for it. That is his record.”
Allred cosponsored the Equality Act, which would provide federal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity for every LGBTQ American, including access to credit, jury service, employment, housing, education, and public spaces and services.
The Equality Act passed the U.S. House in 2021 and never came up for a vote under the Republican-led Senate majority. Transgender people are at four times greater risk of assault in a bathroom that does not match their gender identity. Crime data does not support claims that transgender people are a threat in public/private spaces including bathrooms or locker rooms.
“I don’t support boys playing girls’ sports,” Allred responded. “What I think is that folks should not be discriminated against. Sen. Cruz should explain to you why he thinks they should.”
Transgender girls are girls, and transgender women are women. Some transgender women play sports, and when they do, they are not “men playing in women’s sports.” States with policies that include transgender students in sports have more girls playing sports than states with bans.
In a follow-up, moderator and Dallas Morning News political reporter Gromer Jeffers asked the candidates if they had any words for the parents of transgender youth who are concerned about their children’s safety.
“We should protect every child and protect every person,” Senator Cruz said. “Everyone deserves to be protected against violent crime and against discrimination.”
Instead of stopping there, Senator Cruz then repeated a widely and officially debunked claim about Olympic boxers accused of being transgender.
“Two biological men competing in women’s boxing at the Olympics,” Senator Cruz said. “That was wildly unfair.”
The Olympians are cisgender, and faced widespread harassment after false claims about them were spread and amplified online.
In response to the candidates’ answers on Tuesday evening, Equality Texas tweeted “Trans Texans belong in sports. That’s not a debate. #LGBTQIA #TransTexas”
Texas native and transgender writer Charlotte Clymer fact-checked Cruz’s Olympic claims.
“To be abundantly clear, for the millionth time: No trans women competed in the Paris Olympics,” Clymer said. “Both of the women Ted Cruz is attacking in this debate are women who were assigned female at birth. He is lying through his teeth yet again in service to shameless hatred.”
Continuing his lies, Senator Cruz said “Our military allows drag shows on military bases, pays for soldiers to have sex changes using taxpayer money and pays for children to be sterilized and have sex changes on military bases.”
Members of the U.S. military and their families have always received health care as part of their benefits. Children are not sterilized or have “sex changes on military bases.” The U.S. military has hosted drag shows to entertain troops stationed around the world for decades, to no harm whatsoever, including when Donald Trump was president.
Jacob Reyes, GLAADs Texas-based News & Rapid Response Coordinator, responded to Tuesday night’s debate.
“For the first time in a high-profile debate this year, LGBTQ people were included in questions to candidates for U.S. Senate and lied about repeated in the answers,” Reyes said. “Sen. Ted Cruz misgendered transgender women, repeatedly refuted lies about Olympic athletes, and consistent with his record of dangerous policies and rhetoric against LGBTQ Texans and our allies, criticized his opponent’s record of support for the LGBTQ community.”
“Rep. Allred’s response about protecting LGBTQ people against discrimination is a promise LGBTQ Texans should demand be kept,” Reyes continued. “Trans youth deserve to be themselves, be safe, and play on teams with their friends the same as every student. LGBTQ youth and all transgender people need a champion who will defend their rights and cheer for them in every way they need.”