Ted Cruz Thinks Supporting Trans Students Is ‘Lunacy’

Republican presidential hopeful and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz thinks the Obama administration's support for trans students amounts to "lunacy!"

Speaking on a conservative radio show Thursday with host Steven Crowder, Cruz inaccurately claimed that the Department of Justice is "trying to force [school districts] to let boys shower with little girls."

BuzzFeed, which has video of the segment, notes that Crowder abruptly pivoted the discussion from Islamic extremists to trans issues, bemoaning the "generation of people who get offended if you use the genetically proper pronouns.

"Look, these guys are so nutty that the federal government is going after school districts, trying to force them to let boys shower with little girls," Cruz responded. "Now listen: I'm the father of two daughters, and the idea that the federal government is coming in saying that boys, with all the god-given equipment of boys, can be in the shower room with junior high girls -- this is lunacy!"

"And I bet you there are a whole lot of parents -- particularly parents of daughters -- that are not eager to have the federal government saying, 'Guess what? Your daughter has to shower with a boy, if he wants to be in there,'" Cruz continued, discounting the fact that trans girls are, in fact, girls, not boys who "want to be in there."

The Tea Party Senator concluded his remarks with a dig at the intellect of what he called "modern leftists.

"You know, the funny thing is, my 5-year-old knows there's a difference between boys and girls," Cruz quipped. "And yet modern Leftists can't figure that out."

Although The Advocate's 2014 Phobie of the Year didn't point to specific cases of what he called the "lunacy" of supporting trans students, Cruz appeared to be alluding to the administration's recent support of two separate transgender students who have sued their school districts after administrators refused to let the students use the restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity. The Department of Education recently ruled that an Illinois school district discriminated against a trans girl when she was relegated to using a private bathroom and barred from changing for gym class with other girls. Similarly, Obama's Department of Justice and Dept. of Education in October backed a Virginia high school junior who was using the boy's bathroom (without incident) until his school board abruptly denied him access, requiring the 16-year-old trans boy to use the girl's restroom at school. The DOJ argued in its brief that such a restriction effectively bars the teen from using the restroom during the school day, not to mention violates Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which ban sex-based discrimination, which has increasingly been interpreted to extend to transgender identity, as well.