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Ted Cruz Is A Supernova Of Hypocrisy. That's Right, We See You *Rafael*
Despite Ted not being his legal name, the Republican Senator just introduced a bill that would allow for deadnaming.
Today in "absolute black hole of hypocrisy" news, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz introduced a bill that would keep federal agencies from facing punishment for refusing to use employees' preferred pronouns or names different from their legal names.
“Forcing anyone to use pronouns that don’t accord with a person’s biological sex is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment,” Cruz said in a joint press release with the bill’s co-sponsor, Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles. “As the Supreme Court held, ‘If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.’ The government has no business compelling anyone to use pronouns that contradict biological reality.”
That’s rich coming from Cruz, who goes by his preferred name, “Ted” instead of his legal name Rafael Edward Cruz. Indeed, the Republican party’s hypocrisy knows no bounds.
The proposed legislation, titled the Safeguarding Honest Speech Act, attacks the Department of Health and Human Services guidance that requires employees to be addressed by their preferred names and the “pronouns they use to describe themselves,” according to reporting by the Washington Examiner.
Cruz is playing fast and loose with the word “safeguarding,” considering how many transgender people would be harmed by fellow employees deadnaming — referring to a transgender person by their former name — or misgendering them.
And this isn’t the first time Ted — see, we can use the name you prefer; it’s really not that hard— has made a mockery of deadnaming and pronouns. Back in 2022, he said his preferred pronoun is “kiss my ass” while giving a speech to right-wing college students at Turning Point USA's annual Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida, alongside Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Gov. Ron DeSantis and Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham, reported The San Antonio Current.
It was a real who’s-who of right wing monsters.
“I talked to a student recently at one of our woke college campuses who said she's required in every class to introduce herself and to give her pronouns," Cruz said. "Well, I'm Ted Cruz, and my pronoun is 'kiss my ass.'"
Despite Cruz's mocking and cavalier attitude toward these issues, critics of the bill say that it is a regressive piece of legislation that has the potential to do real harm.
“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. “In fact, we even have names for these insidious acts: misgendering and deadnaming. 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.”
A dangerous hypocrite is exactly who Ted Cruz Rafael Edward Cruz is.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
