They’re minors and he used their pictures without their parents’ permission, seemingly calling them “boys in girls’ sports.”

Republican Ted Cruz’s desperate search for trans targets in a hateful series of anti-trans attack ads directed at his Democratic opponent Colin Allred has landed the two-term Texas senator in hot water with the parents of two cisgender girls and their high school.

The teens appear in at least two fear-mongering ads attacking both the trans community and Allred, picturing them alongside former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and CeCé Telfer, a Jamaican-born sprinter and the first out trans woman to win an NCAA title.

  • paw@feddit.orgEnglish
    462·
    22 days ago

    I think this is a good example that free speech is not free consequences. The question is who carries the consequences. My guess is the two girls that may get mobbed at least until they graduate, maybe even longer.

    Btw, I am pro free-speech, I just find it kind of sad that more often than not the consequences of free speech from people like Ted Cruz hit the people he’s speaking about.

    • kerthale@lemmy.world
      22·
      22 days ago

      Free speech doesn’t mean irresponsible speech. I’m for free speech as well. Except I expect to be held accountable over what I say, and so do others. And I accept that I give space to speech I disagree with.

      The irony is that those who whine about needing free speech the most also hate to be held accountable to what they say and they hate it when others disagree with them. Both of which are actually violating the principles of free speech.

      So how about we all accept that free speech is an important right to uphold and protect as well as not be a bunch of dicks about it 😎

    • Glide@lemmy.ca
      11·
      22 days ago

      Right. As in all cases involving freedom and liberty, my freedom to swing my arms ends where your face begins. This is hurting someone.

      Even if it weren’t such a rediculously politically charged topic, these girls are likely to now have peers who see Ted Cruz’s statement. They’ll have to deal with some of those peers making comments, and mocking them for being “masculine.” We have countless cases of bullying getting out of control and leading to serious psychological and physical harm, and now we have grown-ass men in positions of political power enabling this kind of behaviour to do what? Weaponize gender issues and spread hatred along political lines?

      Fuck Ted Cruz, and fuck anyone who thinks a grown-ass man commenting on the gender of and posting images of young girls should be protected under “freedom of speech”. This is abuse of power and child abuse. You wanna save the children, Republicans? Start with saving them from your leadership.