This week, pockets of the liberal media got their panties up in a wad and lied about a November 17 proposal from Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) entitled the Safeguarding Free Speech Act to “prohibit federal agencies from forcing an employee or contractor to use personal pronouns that contradict with an individual’s biological sex.”
Given this touches the proverbial electrified rail of transgenderism, Cruz came ready to respond to the ninnies seeing as how his bill would keep the federal bureaucracy from forcing its workers to use such nicknames and preferred pronouns if using them conflicts with their sincerely held religious beliefs.
But, first, the idiocy and misconstruing. First up, there’s San Antonio’s newspaper, the Express-News, who had an X post that was a straight up logical fallacy: “Sen. Rafael Edward Cruz, who uses the preferred name Ted, has introduced a bill to limit the use of preferred names and pronouns.”
The best part? The actual Express-News story was written on behalf of Cruz’s enemies by staff writer Shepard Price, who...uses they/them pronouns. In other words, the notion of someone not being forced to care about their pronouns and gender identity is offensive. Conflict of interest much?
Nonetheless, let’s see some of what Price blabbered about (click “expand”):
Sen. Ted Cruz has introduced a bill that would limit the use of preferred names by trans people.
The irony, critics point out? The senator, whose legal name is Rafael Edward Cruz, uses a preferred name himself: Ted.
(....)
"Anti-LGBTQ extremists attempting to erase trans people by purposely ignoring their pronouns, gender and authentic name are nothing new," Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, told the Advocate. "This latest attempt by Senator Cruz, who does not go by his own legal name, to prohibit the federal government, the nation's largest employer, from respecting employees' authentic name and pronouns, is not only dangerous and demeaning, it's hypocritical."
Not only was it picked up and reposted by the Houston Chronicle, but Newsweek gleefully posted a story with the headline, “Ted Cruz Brutally Mocked by Texas Newspaper.”
“Brutally Mocked”? Price engaged in a litany of logical fallacies to do so, meaning the so called “mock[ing]” has no real bearing on facts.
Cruz excoriated the Express-News clown show in an X post of his own, calling them “lying hacks” in need of “fix[ing] your dishonest headline”:
Lying hacks. My bill doesn't ban anyone from saying anything. The First Amendment allows you to call me "Ted," "Rafael," "a wacko bird," or whatever else you want.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 1, 2023
Rather, my bill prohibits the federal government from FORCING anyone to use preferred pronouns or names. IE, it… https://t.co/Id45Q5J3qp
Two LGBTQ blogs also had meltdowns. The Advocate, which Price quoted from, seethed with similar holes, equating the nicknames with gender identity/dysphoria and pronouns (click “expand”):
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, legally named Rafael Edward Cruz, has introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate titled the Safeguarding Honest Speech Act. The legislation proposes prohibiting federal funds from enforcing policies requiring federal employees to use preferred pronouns or names other than an individual’s legal name.
(....)
This move by Cruz, who is widely known by a nickname for his middle name, “Ted,” rather than his legal first or middle name, Rafael Edward, has sparked a debate not only about the bill’s potential impact on the LGBTQ+ community but also about the perceived irony in the senator’s personal name usage. Critics, including advocacy groups and members of the LGBTQ+ community, also view the bill as regressive in recognizing and respecting gender identity in federal workplaces.
Referring to a statement from the CEO of GLADD, The Advocate argued there’s “severe effects of misgendering and deadnaming, practices that show disrespect for a transgender person’s gender identity and can lead to psychological distress, discrimination, and violence.
Pride was also in a tizzy, but they should cheer up as their hissy fit “Ted Cruz Is A Supernova Of Hypocrisy. That's Right, We See You *Rafael*” was cross-posted at Yahoo! News.
Calling it an “absolute black hole of hypocrisy,” it lamented Cruz’s proposal was “rich” since he “goes by his preferred name, ‘Ted’ instead of his legal name Rafael Edward Cruz. Indeed, the Republican party’s hypocrisy knows no bounds”.
Now, what about the facts?
Here was more from Cruz’s press release arguing why his proposal’s necessary (click “expand”):
On October 11th, 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a new “Gender Identity Non-Discrimination and Inclusion Policy for Employees and Applicants.” Among many other harmful changes, this policy compelled speech by requiring employees and contractors with HHS to call other employees by their “preferred pronouns,” even if those pronouns do not align with biological reality.
This speech mandate violates the First Amendment by compelling government employees and contracts to affirm the idea that a person’s “gender identity” can be separated from their biological sex. Aside from being a violation of the Free Speech Clause, it is also a violation of the Free Exercise Clause, as anybody who has religious convictions that differ from HHS’s view on human sexuality would be forced to publicly deny their faith.
