GLAAD RESPONDS TO LGBTQ QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS AT THE U.S. SENATE DEBATE BETWEEN REP. COLIN ALLRED AND SEN. TED CRUZ

GLAAD: “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 repeatedly in the answers. Sen. Ted Cruz misgendered transgender women, repeated 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. 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.”

Equality Texas: Trans Texans belong in sports. That’s not a debate. 

(Wednesday, October 16, 2024 – Dallas, TX and New York, NY) GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, is responding to the U.S. Senate debate tonight in Dallas between Sen. Ted Cruz and challenger Rep. Colin Allred, and the questions and answers included about LGBTQ Texans.

LGBTQ questions were asked of the candidates for the first time in any high-profile debate of the 2024 election season.

GLAAD has documented the LGBTQ records of Cruz and Allred, here.

Rep. Allred was asked: “Your opponent is saying in political ads that you refuse to protect the integrity of women and girls sports. Where do you stand on transgender athletes and women’s sports?”

Allred answered: “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. 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. 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 responded:  “Four times he 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 rebutted: “I don’t support boys playing girls sports. What I think is that folks should not be discriminated against. Sen. Cruz should explain to you why he thinks they should.”

In a follow-up, moderator Gromer Jeffers asked: “Parents of transgender youth are worried about the safety and well-being of their kids and say ads like the ones you are running are dangerous. What do you say to those parents?” 

Cruz responded: “We should protect every child and protect every person… Everyone deserves to be protected against violent crime and against discrimination,” 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. That was wildly unfair.” The Olympians were not, are not, transgender, and received widespread harassment and threats after the untrue claims were spread about them.

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 claim about Olympic boxers: To be abundantly clear, for the millionth time: No trans women competed in the Paris Olympics. 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.

Quote from Jacob Reyes, GLAAD:

“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 repeatedly in the answers. Sen. Ted Cruz misgendered transgender women, repeated 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. 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.”

Fact check: Ted Cruz’s Statements

1. Claim: [Allred] voted for “men playing in women’s sports.”
   Reality check: 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.
2. Claim: “[Allred] voted for a law called The Equality Act that mandated that men be allowed in girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms.” 

Reality check: Allred cosponsored the Equality Act, which would provide federal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity for every LGBTQ American, including in 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.

1. Claim: [Allred] demanded, “that our military allow drag shows on military bases, pay for soldiers to have sex changes using taxpayer money and pay for children to be sterilized and have sex changes on military bases.”
   Reality check: 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.
2. Claim: “two biological men competing in women’s boxing at the Olympics.” 

Reality check: The Olympians are cisgender, and faced widespread harassment after false claims about them were spread and amplified online.

1. Claim: [Allred] signed onto the “Transgender Bill of Rights.”
   Reality check: this is a resolution to recognize the federal government’s duty in protecting and codifying the rights of transgender and nonbinary people, and ensure they have access to medical care, shelter, safety, and economic security. Transgender people are four times more likely to face violent attacks than cisgender peers. The resolution stated “transgender people make unique, valuable contributions to American society and culture worth honoring and celebrating.”

Additional research:

• Attacks against transgender people have been included in multiple debates in the battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona, and multi-million dollar ads airing throughout the country. 
• GLAAD’s Voter Poll shows 53% of both registered and likely 2024 voters say they would oppose “a political candidate [who] speaks frequently about restricting access to health care and participation in sports for transgender youth.”
• Voters chose pro-equality candidates who spoke up for transgender people in the 2023 elections and rejected candidates with anti-transgender campaigns.
•  CDC data shows transgender youth face dramatically higher rates of bullying, “violence, poor mental health, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, unstable housing, and a lower prevalence of school connectedness than their cisgender peers” in part from from peer, family, and society rejection.